Neighbourhood Rivals

Prasun K. Sengupta

Two of India’s neighbours—Bangladesh and Myanmar—are presently engaged in hectic military force modernisation efforts aimed at acquiring three-dimensional warfighting capabilities, albeit for different reasons. While Bangladesh officially adheres to the policy of ‘friendship with all and malice towards none,’ Myanmar has been arming its armed forces (Tatmadaw) for both combatting a flown-blown civil war and acquiring conventional deterrence against its regional rivals Bangladesh and Thailand.

Bangladesh’s Type 035 Ming-class SSK

The Bangladesh Navy (BN) has witnessed phenomenal growth in the past three decades, evolving into a truly three-dimensional navy capable of maintaining an effective posture across the full spectrum of any conflict at sea. When Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan in 1971, the BN comprised only two armed riverine-patrol boats.

Today, its inventory stands at more than 100 warships and aircraft and some 22,000 personnel. Bangladesh has a 710 km-long coastline along the Bay of Bengal with the principal ports of Chittagong and Mongla, and having settled its maritime boundaries with Myanmar in 2012, and India in 2014 via international arbitration, a sovereign claim over an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of 1,18,813 sqkm. Bangladesh also has one of the largest inland water