Events & Issues

New Delhi, 21 April 2008

India, Burma Talks

FRESH IMPETUS TO TIES

By Dr. Syed Ali Mujtaba

The Indo-Burmese relationship is acquiring a positive momentum of its own, despite western rights’ groups criticism of Myanmar's handling of pro-democracy demonstrations some six months back. India had rolled out the red-carpet for the Burmese military junta’s top leadership’s visit beginning April.

The Burmese delegation was led by the second-most senior military leader and Burmese Army’s chief, General Maung Aye. His entourage included the junta’s number five General, Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo.

General Maung Aye has the reputation of being anti-Chinese and wanting to be the architect of stronger military and economic ties with India, ever since New Delhi set up its “Look East” foreign policy in the early 90s, in order to have close links with the South East Asian nations.

General Maung Aye held a series of meetings with the Indian leadership including External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, followed by a call on President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He also held extensive discussions with his counterpart, Vice-President Hamid Ansari.

“Several agreements were signed in the presence of Vice President Ansari and Vice Senior Gen Maung Aye, including an agreement and two protocols of the Kaladan Multi-modal Transit Transport Project and Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement,” the foreign office said in a statement. It added that Maung Aye had spoken to Ansari about the forthcoming referendum in May and the general elections in 2010 as part of the Burmese junta’s “political reform” and “national reconciliation” process.

In all the meetings, the current situation in Burma came up for discussion.  The General had briefed them about the recent initiatives of the military regime, including its decision to hold a referendum on the new draft constitution in May and the general elections in 2010.

While Manmohan Singh did make a note of the ‘positive steps' being taken by the Burmese government, he underlined the need for Myanmar to expedite the process and make it broad-based to include all sections of society, including Aung San Suu Kyi and the various ethnic groups in Myanmar, said the foreign office statement.

Besides political issues, matters of trade also came for discussion and the two sides sought to find ways to increase connectivity and opening up of more border points between them. Of special interest was the north-eastern States connecting Burma to increase bilateral trade. The two sides also talked about intensifying cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector. India showed its commitment to support Burma’s IT and telecommunication sectors.

Cooperation in security matters on the India-Burmese border, particularly in regard to the north-east insurgent groups taking shelter in Myanmar, was much on the agenda. India sought Burmese cooperation in controlling the insurgent groups, which often slip across the border to set up camps when pursued by Indian police. The Burmese side assured New Delhi that it will take care of India’s sensibilities and do its best to rein the insurgent groups on its soil.

An agreement and two protocols on the Kaladan Multi Modal Transit Transport project, which will allow sea access to the north-eastern States, were signed. The Kaladan project includes upgrading the Sittwe port and Kaladan waterway and construction of a road from Setpyitpyin (Kaletwa) to the India-Myanmar border at a cost of Rs.5.3 billion.

The project is expected to be completed by 2011-12 and would connect Kolkatta port with the Sittwe Port in Burma, a distance of 539 km. From Sittwe Port to Kaletwa in Burma, the transportation will be undertaken by waterway along the river Kaladan, a distance of 225km. The Kaladan River is navigable from its confluence point with the Bay of Bengal near Sittwe up to Kaletwa. Beyond this the river is not navigable. From Kaletwa to India-Burma border transportation will be by road along the border-- another 62 km by road. This would provide access to Mizoram and to other north-eastern States, as well as an outlet to the sea bypassing Bangladesh.

Ahead of the signing of the Multi-Modal Transit Transport project, the Indian Government had cleared a whopping Rs 535.91-crore as ‘Aid to Myanmar’ funds. The two countries also signed double taxation treaty that aimed at checking tax evasion, and boosting trade and investments between the two neighboring countries. The Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement will cover taxes on individual income, company profits, dividends, interest and capital gains.

At a banquet hosted in honour of the visiting Burmese General, Ansari termed Burma as a natural bridge between the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). He confirmed India’s support for the efforts of the UN Secretary-General’s special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, and conveyed that India did not believe that sanctions were helpful and could prove to be counterproductive. He urged the leaders of the Burmese junta to expedite political reforms and make these more broad-based to include the issue of imprisoned pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

While the discussions went off well, the Burmese military junta’s visit was marred by demonstration in New Delhi. Organized by Burmese, Indian and Tibetan activists the protests were against the Indian government’s policy on Burma, in which more than 1,000 people participated. Fortunately, these demonstrations were quite a distance from the place where the visiting guests were staying.

Apart from New Delhi, Maung Aye visited Bangalore to see India’s progress in space programme (even evinced interest in satellites for Burmese usage), and Bodhgaya, the site of the Buddha’s enlightenment.

India's strengthening of ties with Burma has been partly a result of the military junta cozying up to China, which had rung alarm bells in New Delhi. However, following Burmese junta's brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrations led by Buddhist monks in September 2007, India had put on hold the sale and transfer of all arms to the Burmese government.

The momentary pause that withheld Indo-Burmese relations seems to be over and the recent thaw tends to suggests that a new momentum is gaining ground in Indo-Burmese relationship.--INFA

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