DC Edit | India, Myanmar Deepen Ties
Myanmar President U. Min Aung Hlaing’s five-day visit to India, his first foreign visit after becoming president-elect, will enhance India’s relations with the Southeast Asian country and strengthen bilateral ties in trade, defence, energy and connectivity.
The visit will breathe new life into the long-pending Kaladan Multi-Modal transport project, which aims to connect India’s Kolkata port with Myanmar’s Sittwe port and reduce the country’s dependence on the narrow Siliguri Corridor to transport goods to the northeastern region.
The Kaladan project was scheduled to be completed by 2014 but the timeline was missed three times due to various reasons. Currently, the project passes through Rakhine state, an area effectively occupied by the Arakan Army, a separatist organization fighting for self-determination of Rakhine state in Myanmar.
India also raised the issue of the India-Myanmar-Thailand (IMT) Trilateral Highway during the talks. The 1,360 km route, which is under construction, connects India’s northeastern region to Thailand via Myanmar, integrating India with the Asean group by road. While project components were ready in India and Thailand, deficiencies were observed in Myanmar.
The Southeast Asian country is critical to India’s future economic prospects as it has important rare earth minerals and pulses.
The Narendra Modi government’s decision to engage with Myanmar is extremely pragmatic, especially as the Western world and Southeast Asian countries all but stay away from it after the military junta seized power in a coup that toppled the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, 2021.
India shares a 1,643-kilometer border with Myanmar and a maritime border on the Bay of Bengal. Good relations with Myanmar are important for India in terms of ensuring internal security in the northeast region. Similarly, good relations with India are vital for Myanmar after the rise of the Arakan Army. Therefore, both countries rightfully reaffirmed their determination not to allow terrorist groups to use their lands against each other.
