A few strategic wins at a challenging time :: India Secures Rights To Operate Sittwe Port In Myanmar ...... Pakistan gets Saudi snub ..... advised to discuss with India on Kashmir ... a big win for Moditva

" ....Koi farq hi nahi hae 

Sab kucch jeet lene mein aur 

anth taq Himmant na haar ne mein" .....

** (

(There is no difference between you achieving EVERY-THING .... to not giving up YOUR STRUGGLE till the end) 

... a big win for Moditva

Pakistan gets Saudi snub ..... advised to discuss with India on Kashmir 

This is a strategic win at a challenging time.  There are many implications including the now famous 'China' angle.

India has secured rights to operate its second overseas port at Sittwe in Myanmar, following the Chabahar Port in Iran.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has approved a proposal for India Ports Global (IPGL) to take over the operations of the entire port located on the Kaladan River.

India Ports Global Limited (IPGL) is a PSU. It was a joint venture between Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) and Deendayal Port Trust (Erstwhile Kandla Port Trust).  

So effectively it means, the Indian government will control the port in Myanmar. This will be India's second overseas port after the famous Chabahar port in Iran wherein India has operational control. 

It was created and incorporated in January 2015 under the Companies Act, 2013, as per directions of Ministry of Shipping (MoS), for development of ports overseas.

The Ministry of Shipping has presently assigned IPGL the task of equipping and operation of container/multi-purpose terminals at Chabahar Port in Iran.

The Sittwe Port is part of the Kaladan multi-modal transit transport project. The project aims to connect the eastern Indian seaport of Kolkata with Sittwe seaport in Myanmar by sea, and further link Sittwe Port to Paletwa in Myanmar via Kaladan river waterway, and connect Paletwa to Zorinpui in Mizoram through a road component.

This link will not only offer an alternative route for shipping goods to the northeastern states, but will significantly reduce the cost and distance from Kolkata to Mizoram and beyond. It will also reduce dependency on the Siliguri Corridor, known as the chicken’s neck, which is squeezed between Bhutan and Bangladesh.

Last year in May, Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Myanmar's Deputy Prime Minister Admiral Tin Aung San jointly inaugurated the Sittwe Port and welcomed the first Indian cargo ship.

The port of Chabahar is located on the Makran coast of Sistan and Baluchistan Province, next to the Gulf of Oman and at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz. It is the only Iranian port with direct access to the Indian Ocean.  

The Chabahar port, located in Iran's Sistan-Balochistan province, is a joint project between India and Iran aimed at enhancing connectivity and trade ties. India sees the port as crucial for regional trade, particularly its connectivity with Afghanistan.   

Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif in the holy city of Mecca, on April 7 with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman 

A joint statement issued by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan stressed the importance of dialogue between Pakistan and India to resolve the outstanding issues between the two countries, especially the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.  

"The two sides stressed the importance of dialogue between Pakistan and India to resolve the outstanding issues between the two countries, especially the Jammu and Kashmir dispute to ensure peace and stability in the region," said the joint  statement by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.  

The statement echoes India's stance as New Delhi has always held the Kashmir issue as a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan and has always rejected the third party intervention.  

This is unlike Pakistan which has struggled over the decades to 'internationalise' the Kashmir issue. Islamabad always wanted UN, the US or even the Organistion of Islamic Countries (OIC) to issue statement or try to 'intervene'.  Saudi's advise on those lines and Pakistan agreeing to take up Kashmir as an issue bilaterally with India would be regarded as a diplomatic win for New Delhi.

It's a 'double' snub for Pakistan as new Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif had landed in Saudi Arab to seek package to bail itself out of the dire economic condition it finds itself.  

"The significance of Kashmir to India is difficult to exaggerate. The decision by Narendra Modi’s recently re-elected government to remove the disputed Himalayan region’s special status under the constitution is no legal technicality, but a statement of intent and ideology.

As the predominantly Hindu India’s only Muslim majority state, adherents of the country’s secular tradition of politics have long seen Kashmir’s continuing inclusion within the vast democracy as evidence that all faiths can thrive together. 

This contrasts India’s immense religious diversity with neighbouring Pakistan’s strong Muslim identity.

But for Hindu nationalists such as Modi and his Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), the privileges granted by article 370 of the constitution to Kashmir were concessions that a strong India united under their saffron banner no longer needed to make". -- The Guardian, Aug 5, 2019