India’s Myanmar Outreach: Balancing Regional Security And Strategic Connectivity

New Delhi: India's push to bring Myanmar's military leadership and ethnic resistance groups onto a common political platform reflects growing concerns that prolonged instability in the neighbouring country could jeopardise New Delhi's connectivity ambitions in Southeast Asia.

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri's remarks following the bilateral summit meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Myanmar President Min Aung Hlaing here on Monday underline India's recognition that the future of critical infrastructure projects such as the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project and the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway is increasingly tied to a broader political settlement in Myanmar.

The significance of India's efforts to facilitate dialogue among Myanmar's competing political and ethnic stakeholders extends far beyond diplomacy. As conflict between the military junta and ethnic armed organisations continues to disrupt key transport corridors, New Delhi sees national reconciliation in Myanmar as essential not only for safeguarding multi-billion-dollar connectivity projects but also for ensuring stability along India's sensitive northeastern frontier and preserving strategic access to Southeast Asia.

Addressing a special media briefing following the bilateral summit, Misri said that efforts are on to bring in all the ethnic groups in the eastern neighbour to the same platform and find a way forward within a united Myanmar.

"There isn't yet a final agreement between all stakeholders," the Foreign Secretary said. "And in the context of the points that the Prime Minister was making on the need for, as Myanmar finds its way back towards democracy, the need for an enduring peace in the country, the need for inclusion, the need to have all stakeholders at the table and to examine the points of views of all the interlocutors who have been part of this process over a long period of time."

According to a separate joint statement issued following the meeting, Modi reaffirmed India's support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Myanmar.

"Both sides underscored the importance of preventing the misuse of sovereign territory for activities inimical to their security interests," the statement reads.

"The President reiterated Myanmar's assurance that its territory would not be permitted to be used against India's security interests. The Prime Minister affirmed that India, as a steadfast and trusted partner of Myanmar, remained committed to deepening security cooperation between the two countries."

It further stated that Modi conveyed India’s “support for Myanmar-led efforts towards achieving peace, stability, national reconciliation and socio-economic development”. “He also offered continued assistance and cooperation, based on mutual respect and friendly relations between the two countries,” it added.

India is increasingly convinced that the long-term viability of its security interests, connectivity projects and broader Indo-Pacific strategy depends on a political accommodation among Myanmar's military authorities and the country's numerous ethnic resistance organisations.

The objective is not merely diplomatic. It is directly linked to India's strategic, economic and security interests in its eastern neighbourhood. Myanmar occupies a unique position in India's foreign policy because it is the only Southeast Asian country sharing both a land and maritime boundary with India.

It serves as the geographical bridge between India's northeastern region and Southeast Asia. As a result, virtually every major overland connectivity project under India's Act East Policy passes through Myanmar. Without a stable Myanmar, India’s vision of connecting its northeastern states with Southeast Asian markets becomes difficult to realise.

Today, India’s two most important connectivity projects in Myanmar are the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project and the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway.

The Kaladan project is strategically important because it provides India an alternative route to its northeastern states without depending entirely on the narrow Siliguri Corridor. The project links Kolkata to Myanmar's Sittwe Port by sea, Sittwe to Paletwa through inland waterways along the Kaladan River, and Paletwa to Mizoram through a road network.

The India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway is designed to connect Moreh in Manipur, Tamu and Mandalay in Myanmar, and Mae Sot in Thailand. Eventually, it is expected to become part of a larger network extending into Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

Both projects have suffered repeated delays because of political instability, insurgency and the ongoing civil conflict in Myanmar following the military takeover in 2021. "These projects have been underway for several years, and they have been delayed in most cases," Misri said. "And certainly, right now, the obstacle that faces both of these projects is the security situation in Myanmar."

He said that the Kaladan highway is in an area where there are active hostilities going on right now between the Myanmar army and the ethnic armies in Rakhine State, whereas the section of the trilateral highway, where work was underway and has gone on in fits and starts in recent years, is again in an area where ethnic armed groups and the people’s defence forces are quite active and engaging in hostilities with the Myanmar army.

"Nevertheless, we have continued to engage with the Myanmar authorities, and wherever there has been a possibility to take forward the work by utilising either lulls in fighting or by securing, making sure that the security of the workers, of the teams of workers is not going to be impacted, we have been able to move forward," Misri said.

Though many countries in the world have refused to have diplomatic ties with Myanmar because of the perception that the new government that has been elected farcically and does not have legitimacy, Misri explained why India has continued to engage with the eastern neighbour.

"History has shown that disengagement doesn't give us any results that are better than engagement," he said. "And it certainly doesn’t produce democratic change. That is what we are interested in. On the other hand, disengagement only produces a vacuum that others go on to fill that to our detriment. And those others have no interest in democracy, I can assure you about that."

According to K Yhome, Fellow at the Shillong-based Asian Confluence think tank, India's engagement with Myanmar and particularly under the current leadership of new President Min Aung Hlaing is not new.

"This engagement is premised on a few foreign policy assumptions that the current regime under the military is indispensable, "Yhome told ETV Bharat. "The Act East Policy, the connectivity, and of course the China factor and all those are nothing new."

He said that the only new aspect he saw from Monday’s summit was the issue of bringing the ethnic armed organisations onto a single platform.

"In engaging with the conflict parties in Myanmar, you would find that India has not been in the forefront," Yhome said. "The ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), of course, played the most critical role, though its role has also faced several hurdles and obstacles. The second most important external player trying to find some engagement resolutions to the conflicts is China."

He said that Thailand too initiated a few peace dialogues among the ethnic armed groups. "Bangkok tried to bring together some of Myanmar's immediate neighbours like India, China, Bangladesh and Laos together," he explained. "However, Thailand did not push it too hard when ASEAN members did not show much interest."

According to Yhome, India has spoken about the need for all parties involved to start a peace dialogue and find some solution within the framework of the Myanmar-led and Myanmar-owned initiative.

"If Monday’s discussion was also about scaling up India’s role in trying to find a resolution in Myanmar, I think that is something new," he said.

"If India has agreed to play a bigger role to bring about some peace initiatives process in Myanmar, that is something that we'll have to wait and see how that evolves."

Put together, India’s efforts to encourage dialogue among Myanmar’s military leadership, ethnic armed organisations and other stakeholders are driven less by ideology than by hard strategic calculations. The success of the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project, the India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway, border security in the Northeast, maritime access to Southeast Asia and the broader Act East Policy all depend on a stable Myanmar.

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