BAY OF BENGAL CONFLICT

DHAKA (Reuters) :There is a naval standoff happening in the Bay of Bengal. Myanmar and Bangladesh are at odds over who owns the rights to search for and extract natural gas and oil along their maritime boundaries.
The Bay of Bengal conflict has been building for years. Officials from both countries have been in talks for years over who owns the Bay and therefore the rights to resources that are discovered there.

At this point official from Bangladesh are reporting that the South Korean firm, The Daewoo-Myanmar company, hired by Myanmar to search for oil, is starting the process of withdrawal from the area as conflict between the two countries is escalating. The Myanmar government is stating that they are only stalling temporarily while the two countries sort out their differences.
Both countries are public saying they are searching for a peaceful solution to the problem and both have approached China, an ally of both countries, to mediate. However, both countries have put their armies on alert and have deployed naval war ships to the area.

In Yangon, a Foreign Ministry official said, Myanmar had only "paused" in its exploration activities in the disputed waters.
"We don't have any reason to change our stance on this matter because it is located in our exclusive economic zone," said the Foreign Ministry official, who declined to be identified.
"We will continue it soon and move somewhere else within our zone when it's finished," he said of the exploration work.
Meanwhile, the head of Bangladesh's army-backed interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, held a meeting on Thursday with the armed forces chiefs and foreign ministry officials to take stock of the situation.

Neither of these nations is a naval superpower. Both fleets are largely composed of patrol boats, many armed with those ubiquitous Chinese anti-ship missiles. Each nation is believed to have a frigate or corvette sized ship at the scene, as well as some missile armed patrol boats. If it came to violence, the C802 missiles could make quick work of ships on both sides. The older missiles, less so.

The world is an unstable place right now. The world sees this and begins to vie for their own.