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India aims to ramp up military ties with Myanmar - The Times of India
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NEW DELHI: India is aiming to ramp up its military ties with Myanmar, after PM Manmohan Singh set the stage for greater bilateral economic cooperation during his visit to Naypyitaw last May, as part of the overall policy to stem Chinese strategic inroads into the energy-rich south-east Asian country.
Defence ministry sources said Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne, in his capacity as the country's senior-most military officer and chairman of the chiefs of staff committee, will be leading a five-member delegation to Myanmar next week.
Defence minister A K Antony will be heading for Naypyitaw early next yearto further firm up defence ties — ranging from training and intelligence coordination to "capacity building'' and supply of military equipment to Myanmar.
"The IAF chief-led delegation will be in Myanmar from November 26 to 29, but the dates forthe ministerial visit are yetto be finalized,'' said a source. ACM Browne will becalling on the top Myanmarese leadership, apart from holding talks with the military commander-in-chief General Min Aung Hlaing and visiting military establishments.
The top Indian defence visits to Myanmar come soon after Barack Obama earlier this month became the first US President to visit Myanmar, which is slowly undergoing some politico-democratic reformsafter half-a-century of being a secretive authoritarian state.
It also comes in the backdrop of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San SuuKyi, released from house arrest by the military juntain 2010, recently expressing `sadness'' at the way the Indian establishment cosied up to the Myanmarese military government over the last decade instead of whole-heartedly supporting the pro-democracy movement in her country.
It was in the late-1990s that India undertook a hard-nosed strategic U-turn in its policy towardsMyanmar, after several years of supporting Suu Kyi's democratic movement,when it found China had assiduously forged deep links with Naypyitaw by filling in the vacuum.
Moreover, India also wanted the junta's cooperation in flushing out Indian insurgent groups operating from Myanmarese soil as well asto bolster its eastern region's connectivity to theoutside world.
Since then, India has transferred military equipment like Islander maritime patrol aircraft as well as 105mm light artillery guns, naval gun-boats, mortars, grenade-launchers and rifles to Myanmar, the onlyASEAN country with which itshares land and maritime borders.
During the PM's trip to Myanmar in May — the firstsuch visit in 25 years — the two countries inked a dozen MoUs, from an air services agreement and border area development pact to a joint trade and investment forum and extension of a $500-million line of credit to Naypyitaw.
As shown by the recent Obama visit to the country,western nations too have also come around to the Indian view of the need to engage with the Myanmarese military leadership in order to, among other things, push for democratic reforms.
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NEW DELHI: India is aiming to ramp up its military ties with Myanmar, after PM Manmohan Singh set the stage for greater bilateral economic cooperation during his visit to Naypyitaw last May, as part of the overall policy to stem Chinese strategic inroads into the energy-rich south-east Asian country.
Defence ministry sources said Air Chief Marshal N A K Browne, in his capacity as the country's senior-most military officer and chairman of the chiefs of staff committee, will be leading a five-member delegation to Myanmar next week.
Defence minister A K Antony will be heading for Naypyitaw early next yearto further firm up defence ties — ranging from training and intelligence coordination to "capacity building'' and supply of military equipment to Myanmar.
"The IAF chief-led delegation will be in Myanmar from November 26 to 29, but the dates forthe ministerial visit are yetto be finalized,'' said a source. ACM Browne will becalling on the top Myanmarese leadership, apart from holding talks with the military commander-in-chief General Min Aung Hlaing and visiting military establishments.
The top Indian defence visits to Myanmar come soon after Barack Obama earlier this month became the first US President to visit Myanmar, which is slowly undergoing some politico-democratic reformsafter half-a-century of being a secretive authoritarian state.
It also comes in the backdrop of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San SuuKyi, released from house arrest by the military juntain 2010, recently expressing `sadness'' at the way the Indian establishment cosied up to the Myanmarese military government over the last decade instead of whole-heartedly supporting the pro-democracy movement in her country.
It was in the late-1990s that India undertook a hard-nosed strategic U-turn in its policy towardsMyanmar, after several years of supporting Suu Kyi's democratic movement,when it found China had assiduously forged deep links with Naypyitaw by filling in the vacuum.
Moreover, India also wanted the junta's cooperation in flushing out Indian insurgent groups operating from Myanmarese soil as well asto bolster its eastern region's connectivity to theoutside world.
Since then, India has transferred military equipment like Islander maritime patrol aircraft as well as 105mm light artillery guns, naval gun-boats, mortars, grenade-launchers and rifles to Myanmar, the onlyASEAN country with which itshares land and maritime borders.
During the PM's trip to Myanmar in May — the firstsuch visit in 25 years — the two countries inked a dozen MoUs, from an air services agreement and border area development pact to a joint trade and investment forum and extension of a $500-million line of credit to Naypyitaw.
As shown by the recent Obama visit to the country,western nations too have also come around to the Indian view of the need to engage with the Myanmarese military leadership in order to, among other things, push for democratic reforms.
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