[ad_1]
New Delhi: National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval on Wednesday held a meeting with his Myanmar counterpart Admiral Moe Aung in St. Petersburg, Russia, and raised growing concern in New Delhi about the deteriorating security situation in the India-Myanmar border areas amid intensifying clashes between the ruling junta and rebel groups.
The meeting came days after India shut down its consulate in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state in Myanmar, and relocated its staff to its embassy in Yangon. Doval met Moe Aung on the sidelines of the XII International Meeting of High Ranking Officials Responsible for Security Matters.
According to a readout issued after the meeting, both sides discussed the safety of India-funded infrastructure initiatives in Myanmar, particularly the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport (KMTT) project, which will pass through Manipur and Mizoram into Myanmar, and the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway (IMT Highway) covering a distance of 1,360 km.
“On the sidelines of the XII International Meeting of High Ranking Officials Responsible for Security Matters in St Petersburg, NSA Shri Ajit Doval had a bilateral meeting with his Myanmar counterpart Admiral Moe Aung and talked about the current situation in Myanmar and India-funded infrastructure projects in Myanmar,” said the readout.
The two NSAs, the readout added, also discussed recent developments along the India-Myanmar border, including issues related to security and refugees.
Doval was accompanied at the meeting by India’s new Ambassador to Russia, Vinay Kumar, who was the ambassador to Myanmar between 2022 and 2024.
Admiral Moe Aung, who was Myanmar’s Navy chief, was made the NSA by the junta in January this year.
The St Petersburg meeting coincided with the three-year anniversary of the Five-Point Consensus, signed on April 24, 2021, by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to restore peace after the February 2021 coup in Myanmar.
Among other things, the consensus seeks to “urge the Myanmar Armed Forces in particular, and all related parties concerned in
Myanmar to de-escalate violence and stop targeted attacks on civilians, houses and public facilities, such as schools, hospitals, markets, churches and monasteries”.
ALSO READ | As Brutal Myanmar Civil War Drags On, India Keeps Close Watch, Puts Defences In Place
How ASEAN’s Myanmar Peace Plan Failed
India has decided that it will not let the ASEAN Five-Point Consensus guide New Delhi’s approach to its dealings with Myanmar. India had been dealing with the junta after the coup, albeit in a cautious manner, as it was largely waiting for ASEAN to steer the policy related to Myanmar, top-level sources told ABP LIVE.
But ASEAN itself did not accept the junta or allow it to be part of high-level meetings even as the military regime rejected the tenets of the policy. Meanwhile, the rebel groups that are fighting the army there, mainly under the umbrella of the ‘Three Brotherhood Alliance’, have taken charge of large parts of Myanmar, and the violence has spilled onto the country’s borders with India and Thailand.
According to the sources, India has raised the matter strongly with Myanmar and also discussed measures that New Delhi plans to implement to protect its territory from its impact, such as scrapping the free movement regime (FMR) and fencing the 1643-km-long border.
The 3BHA, which consists of the Arakan Army (AA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), has of late claimed victory in some key parts of the country in a major blow to the military government there.
Anil Wadhwa, former Secretary (East) at the Ministry of External Affairs, said, “The military junta will keep on trying to take back what they have lost but the rebels are getting help from outside. Some suspect that the US and EU are supporting the rebel groups even as Russian arms have started coming into Myanmar in support of the military junta.”
According to Wadhwa, now a Distinguished Fellow at Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), “The rebel groups are far from the idea of a national unity government since they are more interested at the moment in consolidating their own gains and enjoying the perks of governance and revenue in the areas they control.”
It is also suspected, he said, “that they would like to continue to enjoy the unaccounted funds which are coming their way from those opposed to the military junta”.
“In this situation they will be least interested in working towards a unity government.”
On the ASEAN peace plan, the veteran diplomat said, “ASEAN has tied their own hands. The five-point consensus has failed to gather traction. ASEAN is not speaking to the military government or giving them any kind of recognition. Countries like Cambodia have tried to push for a dialogue, but there is opposition from prominent ASEAN countries. The prominent ones are opposed to inviting the foreign minister or the chairman of the junta to the ASEAN ministerial or summit meetings.”
Earlier this month, the Ministry of External Affairs announced that the government was forced to shut down its consulate in Myanmar’s Sittwe, and relocate the staff to Yangon. In February, India issued an advisory asking Indian nationals to leave Rakhine state as one of the prominent rebel groups, the Arakan Army, captured some key parts.
“India needs to watch this space carefully but measures such as scrapping the free movement regime will be opposed by inhabitants of the northeast and fencing the border will prove to be an arduous task,” Wadhwa said. “There will need to be extraordinary patrolling to man the porous border. Linkages run deep on both sides of the border.”
[ad_2]
Source link