Myanmar-Bangladesh maritime talks fail; Myanmar-China oil pipeline to start in 2009
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  • Myanmar and Bangladesh failed to resolve their concerns over a disputed maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal. The next round of talks will resume in Myanmar in January 2009. The two-day maritime boundary delimitation talks ended inconclusively as both sides refused to change their positions on the method of marking the coastline of the exclusive economic zones. Bangladesh’s additional foreign secretary M.A.K. Mahmood told reporters in Dhaka on November 17 that Myanmar’s proposed corridor in the Bay was not acceptable and that Dhaka wanted ‘equity’ to be “the guiding method to settle the issue under the UN [United Nations] Convention on the 1982 Law of the Sea.” The January meeting was only four months ahead of the military regime’s deadline for maritime demarcation claims to the UN. Myanmar will have to claim the maritime demarcation with Bangladesh by May 21, 2009 while the Bangladeshi deadline is July 27, 2011 under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS,1982)1.

    Reports noted that the project to build an oil and gas pipeline from Myanmar’s southwestern port in Kyaukpyu to China’s Yunnan Province will start in early 2009. Under a $2.5 billion agreement between the two countries, the China National Petrol Corp will have 50.9 per cent stake while state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise will hold the rest. The project, which includes a $1.5 billion oil pipeline and a $1.04 billion gas pipeline, was expected to provide an alternative route for China's crude imports from the Middle East and Africa and ease the country's worries of its over-dependence on energy transportation through the Strait of Malacca.

    In other developments, Zhang Gaoli, a political bureau member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and his delegation concluded its three-day visit to Myanmar. The Chinese delegation met Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein in Naypyidaw on November 192.

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