Naypyidaw
China is closing in on India to get greater access to the Indian Ocean from ports in Myanmar, said a keen observer of China-Myanmar relations, who underlined that New Delhi should increase its naval capabilities to counter that.
A regional expert, who goes by the pseudonym Yan Naing said the stakes are made even higher by the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), a portion of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
The CMEC, the umbrella for a host of infrastructure projects, runs from Yunnan Province to the Indian Ocean port of Kyaukphyu in western Myanmar. Naing pointed out that CMEC will enable China’s navy, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), to encroach on the Bay of Bengal.
It will also allow China’s oil shipments to avoid the Strait of Malacca, which is patrolled by the United States (US) Navy’s Seventh Fleet. While the US and India appear to be at odds over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the two have a shared interest in preventing the PLAN from gaining access to the Indian Ocean, the expert wrote in an opinion piece for The Irrawaddy.
This concern comes in the background of the US Naval Intelligence report released last month which stated that the PLAN will have 67 new major surface ships and 12 new nuclear-powered submarines by 2030.
According to a US report, China is growing its navy so that it can control seas by 2030 and displace the US Navy as the world’s most powerful navy by 2049.
