With both China and India seeking to expand their influence in Burma, the rising powers are hard at work getting a 60-year-old road back in shape.

The Stilwell Road — which cost the lives of thousands of soldiers and labourers during World War II and helped break the Japanese blockade of China — stretches from Assam in India to Kunming in China, via Burma. After the war it fell into disuse and decline.

An unattributed article on FT.com cites the highway as explaining “why India and China have been reluctant to condemn Burma’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, while the international community has set about trying to punish the military junta”.

It is only one facet of India’s plan to increase trade and influence in southeast Asia. It is building an upriver port in its landlocked northeast which will allow shipping to Burmese ports and thus practical export from the poorest part of the country. Telecommunications links are also on the way.

However, India is playing catch-up.

China has already converted its own 680km stretch into a six-lane highway and is helping to rebuild much of the road inside Burma. India is further behind, expecting to complete the transformation of a single-lane track ridden with pot-holes into a two-lane highway by March.

New Delhi, keen to connect India’s insurgency-ridden north-east with the fast-growing markets of south-west China and south-east Asia, is also expected to help build part of the 1,000km-long Burmese section.

Let’s be frank, nobody builds a six-land highway unless they’re sure it will get good use. This is China planning for the future, likely in part to get access to Burmese gas (which is piped to India) but also to increase regional power.

Although China and India are rivals — they have fought territorial wars in the past — it makes sense for each to develop trade infrastructure toward one another. With both economies growing ever stronger, it is ideal for both countries to build up export and import ties, even if they are via proxy such as Burma.