ASIA PACIFIC
- Thailand announced recently it will cancel the Kra Canal project that China wanted to build as part of Belt and Road Initiative. The Kra Canal project envisaged linking the Gulf of Thailand with the Andaman Sea cutting short oil supply by sea to China by some 1200 km avoiding the crowded Straits of Malacca. It provided a strategic avenue for the Chinese Navy to dominate the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and switching of military forces through the canal. Cancellation of the Kra Canal will increase the significance of the CMEC (China-Myanmar Economic Corridor) of which Kyaukphyu Port could be the future naval base of China.
SOURCES: SOUTH ASIA MONITOR – TIMES NOW NEWS
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