Bangladesh, China, Myanmar to meet soon to revive Silk Route

Bangladesh, China and Myanmar agreed to shortly hold a dialogue to establish a direct road link from Dhaka to Kunming, reviving the ancient Silk Route. ‘I have discussed with my Chinese and Myanmar counterparts the direct road link with China and both of them agreed to hold a meeting shortly,’ the foreign minister, M Morshed Khan, told reporters on Sunday.  Morshed had meetings with the Chinese foreign minister, Li Zhaonxin, and the Myanmar foreign minister, Nyan Win, on the sideline of the 13th meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum that took place on Friday in Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur.  Asked about the possible schedule for the tripartite meeting, the foreign minister said the dates would be finalized through diplomatic consultation.  China in June, meanwhile, sent a letter to Bangladesh requesting an initiative to open up the Silk Route through the proposed Dhaka–Yangon Road to enhance cooperation in trade and tourism among the three countries. The Myanmar foreign minister expressed his eagerness to hold the meeting, Morshed said, adding Yangon has no reservation on the proposed three-nation road link between Dhaka and Kunming, the capital of China’s western province of Yunnan, through Myanmar.  In the latest move, Chin’s president Wen Jiabao asked his communications and transport authorities to take up immediately the project when Morshed Khan made a courtesy call in June.  A communications ministry official said the government was seriously considering the route that has long been in discussion. He said the Dhaka–Kunming road link would be established through reviving the Silk Route, which was once linked with the Grand Trunk Road, connecting Delhi with Arakan, to improve regional trade and business. The government is also hopeful of a breakthrough in the construction of the first phase of the 153km Dhaka–Myanmar Road as a Myanmar delegation is likely to visit Bangladesh in mid-August to sign a framework of agreement. ‘We are expecting a team from Myanmar in the middle of the next month [August] to finalize the draft agreement of the road link,’ communications secretary Shafiqul Islam told New Age.  The communications ministry at a meeting in June decided to invite Yangon to sign an agreement on the first-phase construction of the proposed road, aiming to revive its ‘look east’ policy.  The road link is a major component of the ‘look east’ policy the government of the BNP-led, four-party alliance, which was launched in 2002 with a view to cementing ties with countries of Southeast Asia.  The proposed road will stretch from Taungbro to Kyauktaw in Myanmar via Ramu-Gundom to Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh. The road will be constructed in two phases involving an estimated cost of Tk 933.46 crore.  Bangladesh, according to the plan, will construct a 43km stretch of the road in the first phase, of which 20km will be in Bangladesh and 23km in Myanmar, at a cost of Tk 163.49 crore.  Yangon has been unwilling and non-cooperative despite repeated requests from Dhaka since September 2005 for finalizing a framework of the agreement on the road link citing that project is not on its priority list.

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