Myanmar Prez in India on maiden foreign visit, focus on border issues

Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 27

New Myanmar President U Htin Kyaw today arrived in India on his first overseas visit since assuming leadership of his country this March.

Interestingly, Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi travelled to Beijing last week where she was accorded a red carpet welcome. A balancing act has been done by Myanmar as it forges ahead in its foreign policy.

For Myanmar, both India and China are strategically important and these visits testify to the fact that India will have to compete with China in its neighbourhood again. Suu Kyi is expected to travel to India later this year to attend BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation).

China rewarded Suu Kyi on choosing it over India. The reward was a letter by three ethnic rebel groups, with close ties to China, which declared their intention to give up violence and to join the peace conference that Suu Kyi is expected to convene later this month. This also puts pressure on India to quickly pick the pace of its relations with Myanmar.

But, China is not the only country eyeing Myanmar, which is finally opening up to the world. The United States also wants to be player in this region and Suu Kyi would be travelling to the White House soon to seal that bond.

Htin Kyaw will spend the weekend visiting Gaya and Agra and would arrive in the capital Monday when he would start his official engagements. Kyaw would hold delegation-level talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the two leaders are expected to discuss the situation along the India-Myanmar border. Both countries share a 1,640-km-long border and one of India’s concerns has been the presence of insurgent groups along the border. Ahead of Kyaw’s visit, India categorically denied reports that its Army had crossed over into Myanmar. India maintained that both India and Myanmar “operate on respective side of our border”.

During her recent visit to Myanmar, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was given an assurance by the Myanmar leadership that they would not allow any insurgent group to use its territory against India.