Indian foreign minister pushes for completing India-Myanmar-Thailand highway

Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has been vying for the completion of the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway, which was supposed to be operational by 2019 but remains delayed, largely because the military junta regained power in a 2021 coup.

Dr. Jaishankar was in Bangkok for a two-day meeting of the foreign ministers of seven nations forming the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), formed by India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Thailand. The talks focused on “strengthening resilience and coordination among members, reflecting the challenges that we all confront today,” the Indian foreign minister said in a tweet. 

On Sunday, he has co-chaired a separate meeting with the foreign ministers of the Mekong Ganga Cooperation (MGC), which comprises India, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. He argued for prioritizing the implementation of the nearly 1,400km long highway as it will be a major boost to trade, investments, and tourism. Jaishankar has also held bilateral talks with Myanmar’s junta-appointed foreign minister, who served as the country’s prime minister from 1992 to 2011, U Than Swe. “Our discussions focused on connectivity initiatives that have a larger regional significance [...] Stressed the importance of expediting projects that have faced challenges in the recent past, especially the India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway,” Jaishankar said in a separate tweet.

The Indian foreign minister added that he had emphasized the importance of ensuring peace and stability in the border areas between the two countries, which have been “seriously disturbed” recently. Finally, he flagged concerns about human and drug trafficking. “As an immediate neighbor, India is concerned about the humanitarian situation in Myanmar. Proposed people-centric initiatives aimed to address the pressing challenges,” Dr. Jaishankar said. The PTI news agency also quoted him as stating that the India-Myanmar-Thailand highway had been “a very difficult project mainly because of the situation in Myanmar” and one of India’s priorities was to find ways to “unlock it,” which is critical to New Delhi’s Act East Policy.

The trilateral four-lane highway road will connect Moreh, a town in India’s northeastern Manipur state, and Mae Sot city in western Thailand and will run through Mandalay, Kalwa, Yangon and Tamu in Myanmar. Earlier this month, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said that around 70% of construction work on the highway had been completed, however the portion passing through Myanmar would take another three years. 

Expediting the conclusion of the Motor Vehicles Agreement between India, Myanmar, and Thailand was also discussed, along with the decision to set up an MGC Business Council to take forward economic cooperation. The Indian government has been investing in upgrading the infrastructure in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Vietnam through the ‘Quick Impact Projects’ initiative, which oversees implementing low-cost projects, up to $50,000 per each, with short gestation and an immediate impact on local communities. A total of 105 QIP projects have been sanctioned since their inception in 2015-16, 78 projects have already been completed, and the rest are under implementation, according to the initiative’s official website.