ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Nabam Tuki has pleaded the Centre to consider reopening the historic Stilwell Road for establishing border trade between India and south-east Asian countries for economic development of the region as part of the ‘Look East Policy. The Stilwell Road was built during World War II by the allied forces to supply the Chinese an alternative to the Burma Road, which was cut by the Japanese in 1942. It connects Ledo in Assam to Kunming in Yunnan province of China through Arunachal Pradesh and Myanmar.
It has been almost two decades since the Look East Policy was adopted and subsequently the ‘Look East through North-East’ doctrine was conceptualized. However, the progress on various aspects, which were originally envisioned, like border trade and commerce, controlling cross border movement of underground elements, increase in flow of information, cultural exchanges, he said.
