South Asia's Regional Conundrum.

History is geographically distributed while Geography is historically influenced. The Asian continent was largely in a colonial period for two centuries which left its geo-economic interests dwindling with the interference of geo-political influence of Europeans nations. This impact had a devastating impact on Asian nations on the basis of socio-economic status.

In the 20^th century, the Asian nations started recovering slowly. After the post colonialization period certain demarcations were formed rechristening a few countries albeit sharing the same cultural, linguistic and ethnic identities. The South East Asian nations are on a trajectory path leading to a healthy GDP nations which are rapidly on rise. The true potential in the South Asian nation still remains untapped. The One belt, One road corridor proposed by China which is known as ‘Maritime Silk Road’ is a better prospect in improving the trade and prosperity among the Africa-Asia-Europe nations. This is a a very ambitious project which has been unveiled by Mr Xi Jingping , The President of China. This can help improve trade relations through maritime, road and rail majorly contributing to the Asian regional co-operation. 

Such are those routes namely Spice Route and Mausam which has been envisaged by India to revamp its traditional tie ups with the former associated nations that had been the major contributors of India during the pre-colonial period. But these routes dearth huge investments or greater promotion by the nation itself.  Another such route BCIM which was formulated 16 years ago , still has no proper implementational framework on which it could be acted upon. The BCIM is considered the most lucrative idea , if pursued upon could unravel the great untapped potential of Bangladesh, China , India and Myanmar geographically.

Bangladesh, a landlocked country on three sides has the potential to unleash and participate in the advancement of nations. It has a potential economic powerhouse of 160 million with the access to sea on one side , that is greater than the combined population of Germany and France. It has a huge 200 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves which could unleash Bangladesh to become the major exporting economy in the world map. Irony is Bangladesh imports 500 MW from India and commensurately from Myanmar. The Eastern side of India , particularly the North eastern side which consists of seven sisters(seven states) considered as a tourism spot , has a mere 200,000 tourists per year.  Bangladesh has less than one million while in contrast to this, neighbouring countries such as Vietnam attracts 8 million , Cambodia has 5 million and Thailand has 26 million tourists per year.

Such is the imbroglio of the North Eastern States of India,  the Chicken Neck which is 23 km wide stretching from Kolkata to Tripura is 1650 kms. Instead going through Bangladesh , it reduces to 350 km. The nearest port in Tripura’s southern most point is Sabroom which is only 72kms away from Chittagong. Highly inaccessible making it a trade paralysis issue.  

The CPEC( China Pakistan Economic Corridor) which passes through the disputed PoK is also a game changer in the trade context of regional co-operation. India, rather than raising the issue of the economic corriodor passing through PoK, must provide a recourse to join the CPEC which will help in active participation of regional giants in solving the connectivity issue. This will result in faster movement of goods, spur religios tourisms and destabilize cross border terrorisms.  The CPEC must  consider, as a viable option, of including Afghanistan in its territorial run. This will bring a another landlocked country which needs national restructuring , boosting the region’s trade issues. Punjab & Kashmir, two states which are shared by Pakistan & India, will be the beneficiaries in improving the economic status of the region.

Overall, the BCIM & CPEC’s inclusion of India’s territory could boost the regional co-operation and strengthen the economic ties propelling the regional diplomacy at the highest level.  As the major populous countries, India and China need to be considerate on such issues which could have a major benefit on other smaller countries in the region thus improving the geo-economic status. The impediment still lies ahead which had been a major setback in preventing the free flow of goods or trades that is at a moribund stage. Regional diplomats, during the Regional Co-operation Meetings,  must have a serious look on this issue which could either help in betterment or worsening of economy further with engaging in diplomacy talks rather going for confrontation.