Dhaka (TIP): China has revived a decade-old connectivity dream which may have major implications for India as well. The China-Myanmar-Bangladesh Economic Corridor (CMBC) promises Beijing a new route to the Bay of Bengal. But it runs straight through one of the world’s most active war zones.
The China-Myanmar-Bangladesh Economic Corridor came up during Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s four-day visit to Beijing, which began June 22. Meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People, the two sides discussed advancing the corridor “for greater regional connectivity”, according to China’s foreign ministry.
“We proposed the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor about 15 years ago and achieved some progress. But due to various reasons, we have not achieved the results China had expected,” Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Yao Wen said on Thursday, July 2. When asked whether India could join the corridor, he said that it is open to other countries “if they are willing to join”. The ambassador said that the only idea of the corridor is connectivity and regional economic cooperation.
The proposed corridor would start in Kunming, capital of China’s Yunnan province, and run to Mandalay in Myanmar. From there it splits, one branch heading to Yangon and another to the Kyaukphyu deep-sea port in Rakhine State. China wants to extend this further into Bangladesh via Rakhine, linking up with Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar, giving Beijing a direct road to the Chattogram and Mongla ports on the Bay of Bengal.
The CMBC is a rebrand of an older, more ambitious plan. In the 1990s, the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) corridor was proposed to connect Kunming to Kolkata via Mandalay and Dhaka.
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