FREE ASEAN-FREE MYANMAR | Indian foreign minister defends ties with Myanmar junta

Indian Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyan Jaishankar (right) addresses media representatives during a press conference in Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathamndu on April 3, 2015. Jaishankar is on an official visit to Nepal. (AFP/Prakash MATHEMA )

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India’s foreign minister on Thursday defended his country’s ties with the Myanmar junta, despite growing international concerns about recent executions and the legitimacy of elections planned for next year.

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Myanmar’s decade-long experiment with democracy was halted last year and the country has since spiralled into bloody conflict after the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government in a coup.

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It has become a global pariah, with some western countries downgrading relations and levelling economic sanctions against the junta.

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But India, China and Russia have continued to engage with the regime, including conducting ministerial visits.

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Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said New Delhi’s position on Myanmar has been consistent over decades and goes back to the country’s struggle for freedom against colonialism.

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“Our relationship is not something which should be judged… by the politics of the day,” Jaishankar told an audience at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

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As a direct neighbour India could not avoid dealing with the military junta regime because of border issues such as organised crime, coronavirus and Indian insurgents in Myanmar, he said.

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“We also have to manage our border relationship and the complexities of being a neighbour,” he said.

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Earlier this year New Delhi’s incoming ambassador to Myanmar presented his credentials to coup leader Min Aung Hlaing — making India one of the few nations to recognise the junta as a legitimate government.

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Jaishankar said as an immediate neighbour, India had an empathy and an understanding that was different from other countries far away that were pontificating about Myanmar’s democracy.

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Despite their engagement with the junta, “we deeply believe that Myanmar is best served by being a democracy — by reflecting what are the sentiments and wishes of its people,” he said.

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Diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) regional bloc have so far proven fruitless.

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Last week, Myanmar’s ruling junta moved to restrict the country’s 92 political parties from meeting foreigners or international organisations ahead of an election expected next year.

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged the international community to reject the junta’s “sham elections” planned for next year.

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Suu Kyi has been in custody since February 2021 and faces an eclectic raft of charges that could see her jailed for more than 150 years.

AFP Bangkok, Thailand   ●   Fri, August 19, 2022

 

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