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It is important to note that while India has emphasised the need to increase its involvement in Myanmar's energy sector, it also recognises the need to take 'socio-environmental consideration' in major energy hydro-power, energy and pipeline projects.

Though the Japanese financial aid to Myanmar was used for purposes other than serving the interests of the people, the debt should be considered odious, and waived off to free the people from the woes of the debt incurred to aid their repression.

The tragedy of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar has got much attention from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation and a leader of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, has sought to promote a constructive engagement between the OIC and Myanmar, which is a member of the ASEAN, on the Rohingya problem.

As Manmohan Singh meets Myanmar's President in the sidelines of the Bimstec summit, this will give an opportunity for the two leaders to further deepen bilateral ties. As part of the two neighbours growing relations, a border security pact is expected to be signed during Dr Singh's visit.

With the rise of China as an economic and military superpower, the significance of Myanmar in the geo-politics of the region has assumed new dimensions. India therefore cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the country where till recently Chinese influence was allowed to grow unchallenged.

Observer Research Foundation (ORF) organised a brainstorming session on "Possible Approaches for India's policy towards Myanmar" on October 18, 2007. The meeting discussed a gamut of issues including India's Myanmar policy, sanction regime, the China factor, Myanmar's political transition, and international community's response to the recent uprising in Myanmar.

Myanmar remains hugely important for India. The naval visit last week again focused attention on the role of India and China in the Southeast Asian state, even though New Delhi’s weakness lies more in non-security realms.

An interaction on 'Sino-Myanmar Relations and Impact on Region' at ORF Chennai noted that Indian response to the security threat emanating from this strategic relationship was inadequate. And India has not been effectively executing the 'Look East' policy.

After days of disputing the 2020 election results and claiming widespread fraud in the polls that gave the National League for Democracy a second term, Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, staged a coup on 1 February 2021. The coup supposedly ended a decade of inadequate democratic reforms in Myanmar, which came after almost five decades of oppressive military rule. Ironically enough, the military regime itself had set the course of reforms post-2

As the Modi government brings in a renewed push to India's Look East policy with an "Act East" policy, Myanmar's geostrategic position becomes all the more important for India to put the necessary connectivity links with the country and the wider region.

Experts are overlooking the powerful influence of New Delhi and Tokyo.

As India places the Mekong sub-region among its priorities under the country’s ‘Act East’ policy, the ongoing India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway project––currently the only land connectivity project between India and the Mekong countries and the wider Southeast Asian region––could prove to be a game changer. It is imperative to explore ways to ensure early completion of this strategic communication link. This paper focuses on

The mass exodus of the Rohingyas from Myanmar to Bangladesh in 2017 has caused ramifications in the two countries’ bilateral relations. The underlying currents between the two nations have become more apparent following two failed repatriation efforts since the exodus. The public display of dissatisfaction and blame-game have only fuelled the tensions. This brief examines how far the Rohingya issue has affected the connectivity, trade and secur

As Myanmar's general elections draws nearer and at a time when China's relations with Myanmar's military-backed government comes under increasing strains in recent months, Beijing seems to be stepping up its multiple-engagement strategy with key political actors to prepare itself for any eventuality post-elections.

In recent years, China has been playing a proactive and assertive role in neighbouring Myanmar’s internal conflicts, most of them driven by tensions between the Myanmar military and ethnic armed groups. Current scholarly studies examine the factors responsible for China’s increased role, identifying, amongst them, Beijing’s concerns on border stability and nationalist pressure from within. These analyses, however, neglect to delve into the

The trip produced a mixed outlook for New Delhi’s perceptions of Beijing’s inroads in the wider Indo-Pacific.

The Government of Myanmar, in the past few weeks, has played host to a number of high-ranking foreign officials. These include the likes of the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

The UN report may not change India’s official position on Myanmar and New Delhi will continue its constructive engagement with the country

The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) was formed to foster socio-economic cooperation between its seven member nations – India, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. The group signed a free trade agreement (FTA) in 2004, but the pact is still not operational due to the lack of consensus on certain key issues. Some members like India are keen to finalise the terms of t

The intent of BIMSTEC member states to push forth with a bold vision for the region was evident at the 2nd Foreign Ministers’ Retreat

Since August, there has been a continuous flow of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh from Myanmar. The number has now crossed half a million.

How India and its BIMSTEC partners can prosper together

The current Indian government has given clear indicators that it is likely to place regional integration high on its economic diplomacy agenda, be it SAARC, ASEAN or BCIM. The last two are especially important to India's Act East Policy.

After the successful operation into Myanmar against Naga insurgents, it is natural for all Indians to feel thrilled at the valour and skill of our forces and show it. But, it is not so natural for a government to beat the drum in this fashion.

Member states of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) continue to grapple with a host of security issues, including the burgeoning ISIS threat and the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. In the recent months, the region has witnessed the immense social, political, economic and geo-strategic implications of terrorism and displacement. BIMSTEC’s counterterrorism initiatives must therefore be scr

A civil nuclear agreement is one of the key outcomes New Delhi is pushing for in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Japan that starts on August 30. Recently, in Naypidaw, Myanmar, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj called on her Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida to "bring talks on civil nuclear agreement to their logical conclusion".

Since the mass exodus of the Muslim Rohingya people from Myanmar’s Rakhine state in 2017, close to a million of them have been residing in Bangladesh. While the country has offered them sanctuary, there are massive gaps in seeing to their welfare, including the lack of formal, basic education for the children. In 2020, the Bangladesh government announced the launch of the Myanmar Curriculum Pilot (MCP) to provide the displaced Rohingya

Bilateral relations between China and Bangladesh will strengthen further once the road and rail links are established between the two countries through Myanmar. The prospects for the road-rail links have brightened after Myanmar cleared the transit facility, the Chinese envoy for Bangladesh has said.

The issue of migrant workers was one of the important topics for discussion when the Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-Cha visited Myanmar on his first official visit on 9-10 October.

Along with proposing new measures and initiatives, the Narendra Modi government should focus on completing the already proposed projects that would benefit the region like the implementation of the Kaladan Multimodal transit project with Myanmar.

There are unlimited possibilities for strengthening maritime cooperation with Bangladesh and Myanmar - ranging from joint scientific research to environmental monitoring and from major trans-border projects to trilateral naval exercises. If Delhi decides to play for small stakes in the Bay of Bengal, it will deal itself out of the emerging great game in the east.

The strategic location of India’s North Eastern Region (NER) offers ample opportunities for enhancing the country’s economic ties. However, supply-chain constraints at the regional level hamper the trade-growth linkages, as do trade barriers, social unrest, and inadequate infrastructure. Enhancing and improving commercial exchanges with neighbouring countries, such as Bangladesh and Myanmar, will strengthen bilateral and regional networks. Th

The Rohingyas are among the world’s most persecuted communities, who, until a mass exodus in 2017, mainly resided in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. In 2017, about 712,179 Rohingyas made their way to Bangladesh, taking the total number of Rohingya refugees in that country to 855,000.[1]The overcrowding caused by this influx at the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps has led the Bangladesh government to consider temporarily relocating the Rohingya refugees t

This brief examines the evolution of the ‘Indo-Pacific’ concept in the context of the dynamic role of “regions” in international relations. It argues that the conception of these theatres is a consequence of power relations; that as power dynamics change, so does the conceptualisation of regions. This would also explain why the boundaries of regions can be arbitrary—why, for instance, the Asia-Pacific stops at Myanmar and does not inclu

India shares close political and strategic ties with the Southeast Asian subregion of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (or the CLMV countries). However, their economic ties remain weak, owing to various factors including lack of physical connectivity, as well as the absence of synergy between India’s Lines of Credit to CLMV and the country’s economic outreach. This paper analyses India’s investments and development cooperation initiative

North Korea's nuclear weapons capability and cooperative ties with Pakistan is a cause of concern for India. Amid reports of North Korea-Myanmar missile nexus, it becomes important for India not only to take stock of the situation but also to engage more with this reticent state.

It demands New Delhi fulfil its obligations as a natural regional power and one lobbying for a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council.

It would be difficult to graft something like the U.S. system on to the Indian system. Yet, clearly the time has come when Mizoram and Nagaland also have a say in India's Myanmar policy, instead of merely having to bear its consequences.

Indian diplomacy seems to be drawing a blank when it comes to regional cooperation involving fine diplomacy and seasoned statecraft. The recent events relating to India's attempts towards getting natural gas from Bangladesh and Myanmar and the negative response from Bangladesh suggest that it is unlikely to obtain any gesture of

India needs to find money to put into strategic investments and projects across the IOR -- whether it is Myanmar, Iran, Sri Lanka or Mauritius. The way to do it is not governmental schemes which are all running late, but to draw strength from India's entrepreneurial class and the private sector.

India’s Northeast Region (NER) can serve as a pivotal connecting space between India and its neighbours to the east in South Asia, as well as to East and Southeast Asia and beyond, enhancing the country’s diplomatic, infrastructural, and commercial engagements. This paper makes an assessment of NER’s cross-border land connectivity initiatives with Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, and Bhutan—all members of the Bay of Bengal Initiative f

Is India confident to connect its North-East with the neighbouring countries like China, Myanmar and Bangladesh. This is one of the questions that came up during a workshop on "Increasing Connectivity of the North East with Peripheral Countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar and China" at the Kolkata chapter of Observer Research Foundation.

The Nepal-India-Sri Lanka initiative could be used to pursue better people-to-people relations.

The entire region from Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Bihar and West Bengal to Arunachal Pradesh will benefit through improved connectivity. India should now look and Act East in Myanmar seriously as the country has a long border with our northeast and sustained friendly relations are important for India.

Myanmar hosted US President Barack Obama this week in Nay Pyi Taw for the ASEAN and East Asia Summit. Obama, who visited the former 'paraiah State' for the second time in three years, said that the reforms in Myanmar were real but incomplete.