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Myanmar
This Week in AsiaPolitics

China the ‘natural suspect’ behind military upgrades on Myanmar islands near India

  • Myanmar doesn’t have the financial or technical capabilities to carry out the military modernisation seen on the Coco Islands, analysts say
  • China has in recent years acquired commercial and military footholds around the Indian Ocean, and maintains relations with Myanmar despite the coup

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A satellite view of the airfield and associated facilities on Myanmar’s Great Coco Island. Photo: Google Earth
Maria Siow
Only China has the resources and motivation to build military installations on a group of Myanmar islands near a strategic Indian archipelago, analysts said, after a report by a British think tank unveiled major upgrades around the islands.
London-based policy institute Chatham House last month released a report that assessed new satellite images of the Coco Islands, located in a strategically important zone in the Bay of Bengal that is 55km north of India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where it has air and naval bases.

The images show that Myanmar’s islands have over the years experienced “a steady makeover, with telltale signs of military modernisation and facilities to support aircraft”, said the report titled “Is Myanmar building a spy base on Great Coco Island?”.

Satellite pictures of Myanmar’s Great Coco Island show a runway has been extended in recent years and new facilities built. Photo: Google Earth
Satellite pictures of Myanmar’s Great Coco Island show a runway has been extended in recent years and new facilities built. Photo: Google Earth

China on Monday hit back at the report, with the foreign ministry in Beijing calling it “sheer nonsense” in response to a question by Bloomberg on WeChat.

A spokesman for Myanmar’s ruling State Administration Council earlier called the allegation that China was building the facility on the islands absurd.

The report said a major extension of the island’s runway in the past decade was among the most visible changes in the area. The satellite pictures, taken in January by US space technology firm Maxar Technologies, also showed new hangars, a radar station and a large pier, while a causeway appeared to be under construction in the southern part of Great Coco where 1,500 people live.

Troy Lee-Brown, a research fellow at the University of Western Australia Defence and Security Institute, said the images suggested “a fairly significant build-up in infrastructure development” on the archipelago from “what used to be a pretty rudimentary radar station”.

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