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The military-led government in Myanmar, emerging from over a half century of absolutist rule, stands blemished following reports about the killing of over 49 Rohingya Muslims in the north-western part of the country.

Myanmar is ill-equipped to handle growing COVID-19 caseload on its own — it requires external help.

The imposition of sanctions was intended to effect political change inside Myanmar, albeit unsuccessful, in the first place. And because the issue is how best to encourage change, perhaps, it is the right time to lift sanctions as incentive for change.

Later this year, the national elections will be due. The elections may be postponed because of the COVID-19 scenario.

The reforms in Myanmar took yet another symbolic step in the past few weeks with Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and the nation's crusader for democracy, set foot for the first time outside the country in over 24 years.

Nobel Peace laureate and pro-democratic champion of Myanmar, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is expected to visit India in mid November. The dates are yet to be finalised. This would be Suu Kyi's first visit to India since her political carrier took a downward turn after the elections of 1990.

The country has already seen three years of Thein Sein government, a critical phase in the history of Myanmar, which back then was on the throes of transition to democracy.

Myanmar's bilateral engagement with India in trade has gained momentum since 2008 when political and economic reforms were launched in the former 'pariah' state. India-Myanmar trade has more than doubled in the last seven years and has crossed $2 billion in 2013-14,

In Myanmar, the present scenario presents the best opportunity to find resolution to its ethnic issue. Myanmar needs another Panglong agreement if the deep-seated wounds of the decades-long conflicts were to heal and so that the country can move on.

According to a recent report by a US Government commission, Myanmar is among the worst countries when it comes to religious freedom. However, there seems to be no debate on the issue and even the international community is treating it as an internal matter,

A three-day conference on India-Myanmar relations generated a lively dialogue over questions surrounding the possible challenges and opportunities that India would face while redesigning her Myanmar relations and the Look East policies.

The army has hinted at fresh elections in 2010, with predictions of October 10 being the chosen day for polling

Despite being on the backfoot as the country’s civil war intensifies, the military regime is showing no interest in a democratic transition that may be the country’s only hope. India must explore various options for a peaceful resolution to the crisis and provide humanitarian assistance to displaced people

This brief underlines the immense potential for increased cross-border trade, tourism, and people-to-people interactions between India and its Southeast Asian neighbours. In particular, it evaluates the importance of India–Thailand relations, emphasising the present state of the India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway (IMT-TH). Although India and Thailand share a maritime boundary along India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Th

ASEAN and India will need to adopt a more inclusive and pragmatic approach towards Myanmar — one that involves all key stakeholders

Engaging the Myanmar Army in exercises such as those with India provides an opportunity for Myanmar Army officers to learn from the experiences of other armed forces in international military operations.

As part of its political transition from military to "civilian" rule, Myanmar adopted a new constitution through a national referendum in 2008 and conducted its first national elections in two decades in November 2010.

Though Myanmar's reforms are mostly'cosmetic' now, the changes can have unintended consequences, as witnessed in the case of Mikhail Gorbachev's Glasnost & Perestroika in the erstwhile Soviet Union, says Bertil Lintner, author of many books on Myanmar.

Given India’s position in the region and its history of supporting democratic traditions, Delhi is likely to exert pressure for the restoration of democracy.

For both Myanmar and India, Suu Kyi's visit needs to be viewed as yet another important step towards strengthening relationship between the two neighbours. It will serve nobody's interest if the visit were to be seen as a political gain for a party at the cost of others in Myanmar.

A day after the Myanmar elections, conflict started between the army and a faction of the Karen ethnic armed group, pushing thousands of Karen villagers into Thailand. This incident does not suggest smooth beginning for the country's political transition and the possibility of more such conflicts cannot be ruled out

Ethnicity, security and connectivity identified as the foundational pillars of the multifaceted bilateral ties between India and Myanmar — an event report.

Sittwe Port in Myanmar’s Rakhine State is part of India’s Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport project. It connects India’s northeastern states to the Bay of Bengal, advancing the country’s Act East policy and strengthening regional connectivity. Operational since May 2023, the port has handled over 109,000 tonnes of cargo so far, showcasing its potential to bolster trade. However, challenges to the port’s commercial viability persist,

Initiated in 1970, the FMR experienced a resurgence in 2016, finding a place within the broader Act East Policy of New Delhi.

Over three years since the February 2021 coup in Myanmar, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has made little progress in helping resolve the crisis despite releasing a ‘Five-Point Consensus’ (5PC) in April 2021. The political crisis that followed the coup poses a challenge for the ASEAN, which must now deliberate on ensuring not only the early implementation of the 5PC but also whether, and how, it should continue to abide by

The 2023 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report highlights a surge in drug production in Myanmar, posing serious security challenges. The cultivation of poppy, key for heroin production, increased by 33 percent in 2022, reversing a downward trend seen since 2014. Experts attribute the rise largely to livelihood challenges: Myanmar’s economy contracted by 18 percent in 2021, with only a modest rebound in 2022, and there are the compound

A Rohingya insurgency has been around since 1948, but it has waxed and waned depending on the level of repression.

Given the regional complexities, as well as India's own concerns, a more nuanced approach is needed

What explains New Delhi’s greater engagement with the country’s military government?

As Myanmar moves forward, there is an opportunity for India to strengthen its traditional links, create new links and increase its presence. But to do this, India should "change its mindset" about Myanmar, says leading journalist Dr. Bharat Bhushan after a visit to the country.

As the Indo-Pacific region takes centrestage in international affairs, various stakeholder countries are engaging in different forms of economic and strategic cooperation. While such cooperation is implemented largely through bilateral or multilateral forums, certain countries are partnering to promote infrastructure connectivity in third countries across the region. This brief explores one such partnership that holds promise—that of Indi

As leading Asian democracies, India and Japan are perfectly poised to stake their claim in the sphere of geopolitical influence by increasing regional cooperation with countries like Myanmar

India's urgent requirements for hydrocarbons seem to be prompting it to look for proverbial strange bedfellows. Shrugging off the ideological baggage of the Cold War era and the Nehruvian idealism, India is all set to pursue a realistic foreign policy.

The reality of India-Myanmar land connectivity is increasingly becoming a possibility as militancy and insurgency are on the decline in the region, says Mr. Rajeev Bhattacharyya, a journalist who has lived with several insurgent groups in Myanmar and India?s North East.

In an important advance in the bilateral security cooperation between Delhi and Yangon, two naval vessels from Myanmar have arrived in Vishakhapatnam for joint exercises. While India's naval diplomacy with Myanmar is headed in the right direction, Delhi needs to step up the pace of cooperation.

India’s approach to Myanmar’s Rohingya crisis demonstrates the tension between its geopolitical interests and values.

Myanmar, which shares a border with four of India’s north-eastern states—Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, and Nagaland—is crucial to the country’s ‘Act East’ policy. India has a number of projects with Myanmar in the pipeline, seeking to improve physical connectivity through transport links, which in turn can assist in both countries’ development goals. Since the military coup in Myanmar on 1 February 2021, the country has been

Given the geopolitical and security interests, India cannot afford to ignore or isolate Myanmar.

The recent announcement of initiatives establishes India’s presence in sectors where it ought to be more pronounced

As every stakeholder, both inside and outside Myanmar, is trying to seize the opening, US has taken he lead with its Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's ice-breaking visit to Myanmar and her meetings with President Thein Sein and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.