Source: https://www.drishtiias.com/to-the-points/Paper2/india-myanmar-relations
Strategic Significance
India and Myanmar share a long 1,643 km geographical land border and maritime boundary
in the Bay of Bengal. Myanmar shares borders with 4 Indian states – Mizoram, Manipur,
Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh in Northeast India.
Myanmar is India’s gateway to South-East Asia.
The border is also vulnerable to the activities of insurgents and drugs and arms traRckers.
Myanmar is also important from the security point of view as the inSux of sizable
numbers of Rohingya
from Myanmar’s Rakhine state continues.
India–Myanmar border poses a challenge to
India’s security.
Trade & Economy
The success of India’s Act East Policy, Neighbourhood Frst policy largely depend on its
relations with Myanmar
Myanmar is also the benefciary of a duty-free tariff preference scheme for least developed
countries (LDCs).
Some of the Indian companies such as Essar, GAIL, and ONGC Videsh Ltd. have invested in
Myanmar’s energy sector.
Cooperation in the banking sector, which is crucial for investment and trade, is moving ahead
steadily. United Bank of India and EXIM Bank have representative oVces in Myanmar.
Indian frms engage in manufacturing, services (banking, insurance, dry port), power sector
etc.
Connectivity
India is building the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport, a road-river-port cargo
transport project, to
link Kolkata to Sittwe in Myanmar and then from Myanmar’s Kaladan river to India’s north–
east.
Source: https://www.drishtiias.com/to-the-points/Paper2/india-myanmar-relations
India, Myanmar, and Thailand are building the Asian Trilateral Highway, which will
connect India to ASEAN. The road is expected to boost trade and commerce in the ASEAN–
India Free Trade Area, as well as with the rest of Southeast Asia.
Development Assistance
India has already extended $2 billion in soft loans. It has offered to help Myanmar
developmental assistance in the areas it wants rather than be prescriptive.
India is also providing assistance in setting up institutions for higher learning and research,
namely Myanmar Institute of Information Technology, Advanced Centre for Agricultural
Research and Education, Myanmar-India Centre for Enhancement of IT Skills, India-
Myanmar Industrial Training Centres.
A new Indian proposal suggests the setting up of infrastructure and socio-economic
projects jointly with Myanmar in the restive Rakhine state—in the areas of education, health,
agriculture, agro- processing, upgradation of roads, small power projects and livelihood
activity.
There are varying estimates of 1.5-2 million people of Indian origin living and working in
various parts of Myanmar.
Challenges
Overtime trust deficit has widened between India-Myanmar because of the Indian reputation
for delaying implementation of various projects
As China’s growing impudence in the region is a potential threat to India, New Delhi would
like to enhance India’s presence by developing infrastructure and connectivity projects in the
country.
Way Forward
Myanmar is India’s gateway to Southeast Asia and could be the required impetus to realize
India’s Act East Policy.
There are a few sectors where India can extend its presence in Myanmar. These include
manufacturing high-end smart phones, exporting cement, furniture, FMCG, energy,
telecommunications, healthcare, creating townships, low cost housing development, ports and
logistics, rural electrification etc.
Agriculture is another sector where India can substantially augment its cooperation with
Myanmar in rice research activities, post-harvest technology, agriculture financing and
articulating policies.
https://www.drishtiias.com/to-the-points/Paper2/india-myanmar-relations
With a target of becoming a US$5 trillion economy within the next six years,
India could overtake the UK to become the world’s fifth biggest economy this
year and even surpass Japan to be the third largest in 2025, IHS Markit noted
in a report this month
India completed the construction of a sea-port and the inland water terminal in
Sittwe, Rakhine State. This forms part of the $484 million Kaladan multi-modal
transit transport project mooted in 2008 that would link Kolkata in India to
Sittwe
two months after Adani Yangon International Terminal received approval in
April from the Myanmar Investment Commission on April 26 to develop,
operate and maintain the US$290 million Ahlone International Port Terminal
(2) (AIPT) under a 50-year Build, Operate and Transfer agreement with the
government, in anticipation of higher sea trade volumes in the coming years.
Phase 1 of the development will involve enough capacity to handle between
100,000 and 150,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), or twenty-foot
containers, when it is completed within the targeted 12 months. Phase 2,
