Countering China's push: Bridging the gaps in Asean trade grouping

Govt begun to consolidate its outreach to Asean countries, as part of an economic security programme

There are bridges on a 500-km road link from Moreh in India to Mandalay in Myanmar which cannot hold the weight of even a pickup truck. These structures are among the bridges that need to be rebuilt for inter-country coordination around the ambitious India-Myanmar-Thailand (IMT) connectivity project, in the works since 2015.

It is one of the clutch of 50-odd projects India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) have lined up to deepen connectivity, in the past two decades. But these, like the weak bridges, have been held up for every possible reason, mostly political. Delhi is now