India–Myanmar relations

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Further information: Foreign relations of India and Politics of Myanmar

Indo-Burmese relations
Map indicating locations of India and Myanmar

India
Myanmar
Diplomatic mission
Embassy of India, Yangon
High Commission of Myanmar, New Delhi
Envoy
Ambassador of India to Myanmar Shri Saurabh KumarBurmese High Commissioner to India Moe Kyaw Aung

India–Myanmar relations (

drug trafficking, the suppression of democracy and the rule of the military junta in Myanmar.[1] Political leaders from both countries meet regularly on a bilateral basis and within the ASEAN Plus Six
community. Economic relations are considerable with India representing Myanmar's 4th largest export market and the country's 5th largest import partner.

The 1,600 km (990 mi) India–Myanmar border separates the Indian states of Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh in Northeast India from Kachin State, Sagaing Region and Chin State in Myanmar/Burma. In addition to the long land border, India and Myanmar also share a maritime border along India's Andaman Islands.[2]

History

Burmese ambassadors at Calcutta in 1882

India–Myanmar/Burmese relations date to antiquity and cultural exchanges included

Theravada Buddhism
has tremendously influenced Burmese society and culture for millennia, with around 90% of Burma's population continuing to follow the religion.

Myanmar (formerly Burma) was made a province of British India by British rulers and again separated in 1937. It was in Japanese-occupied Burma that Indian nationalist Subhas Chandra Bose delivered his "Give me blood and I will give you freedom!" slogan, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted Burma's role in the Indian independence movement.[3]

Jawaharlal Nehru with U Win, Burmese High Commissioner in India, on October 23, 1947.

India established diplomatic relations after Myanmar's independence from

Military of Myanmar led to strains in ties. Along with much of the world, India condemned the suppression of democracy and Myanmar ordered the expulsion of the Burmese Indian community, increasing its own isolation from the world.[2][4] Only China maintained close links with Myanmar while India supported the pro-democracy movement.[2][5][6]

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Myanmar President Thein Sein, 2014

A major breakthrough occurred in 1987 when the then-

Indian Prime Ministers P. V. Narasimha Rao and Atal Bihari Vajpayee changed course and began to establish warmer relations between the two nations, as part of a wider foreign policy of increasing India's participation and influence in Southeast Asia
, in light of the growing influence of the People's Republic of China, an India-Myanmar joint operation destroyed several militant camps of Arakan Army on the Indo-Myanmar border. The action averted a possible threat to the ambitious Kaladan transit and transport project which is important for improving the connectivity in the Northeast. Myanmar is important for India because of the geographic, historical, cultural and economic linkages/ties that span centuries as well as for the overall development of North-Eastern Indian states. India and Myanmar relationship officially got underway after the Treaty of Friendship was signed in 1951.[dubious – discuss].[2][unreliable source?][5][6]

Economic relations

India is Burma's 4th largest trading partner after Thailand, China and Singapore, and second largest export market after Thailand, absorbing 25 percent of its total exports.[7] India is also the seventh most important source of Burma's imports. The governments of India and Myanmar had set a target of achieving $1 billion and bilateral trade reached US$1.3 billion by 2017.[7] The Indian government has worked to extend air, land and sea routes to strengthen trade links with Myanmar and establish a gas pipeline.[5][7] While the involvement of India's private sector has been low and growing at a slow pace, both governments are proceeding to enhance cooperation in agriculture, telecommunications, information technology, steel, oil, natural gas, hydrocarbons and food processing.[5][7] The bilateral border trade agreement of 1994 provides for border trade to be carried out from three designated border points, one each in Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland.[7]

Infrastructure initiatives

On 13 February 2001 India and Myanmar inaugurated 250 kilometre Tamu-Kalewa-Kalemyo highway, popularly called the

North-East India, and South Asia as a whole, to Southeast Asia.[2]

India-Myanmar-Thailand Friendship Highway

Main article: India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway

India and Myanmar have agreed to a 4-lane, 3200 km triangular highway connecting India, Myanmar and Thailand. The route, which is expected to have completed during 2016, runs from India's northeastern states into Myanmar, where over 1,600 km of roads were built or improved.

The route begins from Guwahati in India and connects to Mandalay in Myanmar, route continues to Yangon in Myanmar and then to Mae Sot in Thailand, which then continues to Bangkok.

India is undertaking two sections of the Trilateral Highway namely, (i) construction of Kalewa-Yagyi road section in Myanmar, and (ii) construction of 69 bridges on the Tamu-Kyigone-Kalewa (TKK) road section in Myanmar. The work on both these sections has been awarded on Engineering, Procurement and Construction mode and is underway since May 2018 for Kalewa-Yagyi section and November 2017 for the TKK section.[8]

The first phase connecting

Mekong-Ganga Cooperation within the wider framework of Asian Highway Network. This is aimed at creating a new economic zone ranging from Kolkata on the Bay of Bengal to Ho Chi Minh City on the South China Sea.[9]

Kaladan Multi-modal Transit Route

The

Governor of Mizoram Vakkom Purushothaman.,[10] but as of Nov 2014 it is likely to be completed by 2016.[11]

Visas

During a 2017 visit to

Nay Pyi Taw, Prime Minister Modi announced that India would offer gratis/no-cost visas to all Myanmar citizens visiting India.[12][13]

Strategic cooperations

Mekong-Ganga Cooperation, along with Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand, helping India develop its influence and ties amongst Southeast Asian nations.[2]

In 2013, India provided a loan of about US$500million.[15] to Myanmar for its development; India and Myanmar have also agreed to cooperate militarily in order to help modernize Myanmar's military.[citation needed]

In 2020, India gifted the

INS Sindhuvir) attack submarine which has been refurbished and modernised by Hindustan Shipyard Limited.[16]

Security ties

Indian and Myanmar troops carried out jointly Operation Sunrise and Operation Sunrise 2 in 2019 in their respective territories to destroy several insurgent camps. However the threat to the Kaladan multi-modal transit transport project, India's gateway to Southeast Asia continues.[17] In January 2023 operations by the Myanmar Air Force in a sparsely populated area along the border were carried out; proximity of local populations resulted in their disquiet.[18][19]

India has also supported Myanmar in its efforts to combat Rohingya insurgent groups like the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) and Aqa Mul Mujahideen (AMM),[20][21] after Indian intelligence agencies found the ARSA and AMM to have links with terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) as well as reported Rohingya terrorists fighting alongside Pakistani extremists in Kashmir.[22]

Disaster relief

India responded promptly and effectively in rendering assistance after natural disaster in Myanmar such as the earthquake in Shan state (2010),

disaster risk mitigation
as well as strengthening Myanmar's National Disaster Response Mechanism.

Covid-19 vaccines

India granted 1.7 million COVID-19 vaccines to Myanmar in the months of January and February 2021.[23]

Human rights

Burmese people would have to achieve democracy by themselves as it respects the sovereignty of Myanmar.[5] This low-key response has been widely criticised both within India and abroad as weakening India's credentials as a leading democratic nation.[2][5][14]

In contrast to much of the international community,

2016–17 Northern Rakhine State clashes or Myanmar's government's treatment of its Rohingya people.[24][25]

India also announced plans to deport its Rohingya refugee population. Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju described the refugees as "illegal immigrants", echoing the Myanmar government position.[26][27] Although the Rohingya have fought deportation in the Indian courts (partly on humanitarian grounds), in September 2017 the Indian government responded that India did not sign the 1951 Refugee Convention and most Rohingya arrived in India before the August 2017 violence. Some Indian media have reported that the country's intelligence agencies suspect militant Royhinga leaders of conspiring with Pakistani terrorists and planning to incite violence in India.[28]

See also

References

  1. doi:10.1525/as.2008.48.6.936
    .
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Asia Times: Myanmar shows India the road to Southeast Asia". Archived from the original on 22 May 2001. Retrieved 2 April 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  3. The Hindustan Times
    . 7 September 2017. Emphasising Myanmar's value in India's freedom struggle, Prime Minister Modi said that this is the sacred land from where Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose gave the slogan of 'give me blood and I will give you freedom'.
  4. ^ Erlanger, Steven (24 July 1988). "Years of Isolation Produced Intensely Poor Nation". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i "BBC NEWS - South Asia - Explaining India's silence over Burma". 26 September 2007. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  6. ^ a b Realism in India-Myanmar relations Archived 15 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ a b c d e "India-Myanmar trade relations". Archived from the original on 12 February 2012. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  8. ^ "QUESTION NO.1127 STATUS OF TRILATERAL HIGHWAY PROJECT". mea.gov.in. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  9. ^ "India to open super highway to Burma and Thailand". Telegraph.co.uk. 29 May 2012. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  10. ^ Purushothaman, Vakkom. "Kaladan Multi Modal Transit Transport Project to link sea route in Myanmar with Mizoram". The Northeast Times. Archived from the original on 15 April 2012. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
  11. ^ Elizabeth Roche (14 August 2014). "Highway linking India to Myanmar, Thailand likely by 2016: VK Singh". livemint. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  12. ^ Press Trust of India (6 September 2017). "India To Grant Gratis Visa To Myanmarese Citizens: PM Narendra Modi". NDTV. "I am pleased to announce that we have decided to grant gratis (no-cost) visa to all the citizens of Myanmar who want to visit India," Prime Minister Modi said.
  13. ^ "India to grant free visa to Myanmar citizens: Modi". The Hindu. 6 September 2017.
  14. ^ a b c "India's Burma Silence Says Volumes". TIME.com. 29 September 2007. Archived from the original on 22 May 2008. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  15. ^ Myanmar to use Indian bank loans for development Archived 15 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ISSN 0971-751X
    . Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  17. ^ "Operation Sunrise 2: Several insurgent camps destroyed along Indo-Myanmar border; Myanmar Army suffers losses". 18 June 2019. Archived from the original on 19 June 2019.
  18. ^ Hassan, Aakash; Ellis-Petersen, Hannah (11 January 2023). "Myanmar junta hit Indian territory during strike on rebel camp, say witnesses". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 January 2023.
  19. ^ Agarwala, Tora; Dutta, Amrita Nayak (12 January 2023). "Myanmar air strikes target rebel camp near border, panic in Mizoram village". The Indian Express. Retrieved 12 January 2023.
  20. ^ Dutta, Prakash K (8 September 2017). "Rohingyas in India and terror threat: How jihadi forces may have infiltrated persecuted Muslims of Myanmar". India Today.
  21. ^ Bhaumik, Subir (18 October 2017). "Why do China, India back Myanmar over the Rohingya crisis?". South China Morning Post.
  22. ^ Chaudhury, Dipanjan Roy (12 July 2018). "Rohingya terrorists linked to pro-Pak terror groups in Jammu & Kashmir". Economic Times.
  23. ^ "Vaccine Supply". www.mea.gov.in. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  24. The Telegraph. Archived from the original
    on 8 September 2017.
  25. ^ Wu, Huizhong (7 September 2017). "Indian Prime Minister blames Rohingya violence on extremists". CNN.
  26. The Financial Times. Archived from the original
    on 11 September 2017. Police across India have been instructed by New Delhi to step up surveillance of Rohingya or anyone suspected of being from the minority as a preparatory step. "They are illegal immigrants in India," Kiren Rijiju, minister of state for home affairs, told reporters last week. "As per law, they stand to be deported."
  27. ^ Phukan, Sandeep (5 September 2017). "Rohingya are illegal immigrants who need to be deported, says Kiren Rijiju". The Hindu. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  28. ^ "Varun Gandhi's View On Rohingya Draws Big Put-Down From Government" 26 September 2017, NDTV.com, retrieved 26 September 2017

Further reading

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