Laughing_soldier
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When US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton travels to Yangon later this week, the first such visit in 50 years, New Delhi can claim some credit for the US change of heart.
At least our policy to Myanmar is vindicated, said officials. Over the past couple of years, India has maintained an intensive engagement with the US on the reclusive southeast Asian nation. Since April 2010, MEA and US state department have begun an East Asia dialogue, where Indian diplomats have taken pains to explain to the US why engagement was better than sanctions which hit the poor. To the extent that Indians have been able to convince the US, Myanmar may go down as the first success story of this dialogue. However, the decision by Myanmars president Thein Sein in September to stand up to the Chinese by cancelling a $3.6 billion dam project in Myistone signaled more powerfully than anything else that Myanmar was ready to balance China. India gave $500 milllion in credit to Myanmar in October, soon after Naypyidaws decision.
For years India has fended off US criticism regarding its policy of engagement in Myanmar. When the US and EU were piling on sanctions on Myanmars regime, hoping to see it break under the pressure, Indian diplomats were expounding on the futility of the exercise. Many Indian strategists believe that Myanmars isolation drove it into the arms of China. Indias own decision to embrace the military junta was partly to offset this, partly in response to Myanmars own desire to have options other than China. Indias security concerns regarding northeast militancy have been addressed so some extent by Myanmar, which has spurred India to engage more deeply with the military regime. Therefore, when the junta decided to go in for a reconciliation programme leading up to elections in March 2011, India was cheering from the sidelines. In the past few years, India has intensified its own ties with Myanmar, even being one of the few countries whose diplomats were allowed access to opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. And next month, India will host a parliamentary delegation from Myanmar led by Thura Shwe Mann to take lessons in parliamentary democracy from India.
After Cyclone Nargis, it was then foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee who called the military leadership in Myanmar to persuade them to accept US aid, after they had sent off a US ship which called with foodstuff and relief material. When the monks went on protest in 2008, India resisted US and EU pressure to condemn Myanmar, while quietly advising the junta to desist from violence against unarmed monks. China and India both helped UNs special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari to travel to Yangon during the monks crisis.
In his parliament speech last November, US president barack Obama openly chastised Indias Myanmar policy -- when peaceful democratic movements are suppressed - as they have been in Burma, for example -- then the democracies of the world cannot remain silent. For it is unacceptable to gun down peaceful protestors and incarcerate political prisoners decade after decade. It is unacceptable to hold the aspirations of an entire people hostage to the greed and paranoia of bankrupt regimes. It is unacceptable to steal elections, as the regime in Burma has done again for all the world to see . in international fora, India has often shied away from some of these issues.
India took it on the chin, but, officials say, within a year, US has turned away dramatically from this policy. Clinton will do the US thing of simultaneously offering assistance while lecturing the Myanmar government on democracy and human rights.
But indications are that the fiercely proud but reclusive government may be open to the US. This was evident when Thein Sein released hundreds of political prisoners the day before he arrived in India on October 15, indicating that sanctions too should be lifted. In another sign of economic openness, Thein Sein has also asked the IMF to help unify Myanmars strangely multiple exchange rate which makes trading very difficult currently.
Now that Suu Kyi has agreed to contest elections as a political party, it will be easier for the rest of the world to engage Myanmar. To that extent, the overwhelming influence of China in Myanmar can be balanced. As the US re-enters the Indo-Pacific region, balancing China is on top of its agenda.
US engagement in Myanmar will be good news for India, because it balances Indias fears of encirclement by China by its string of pearls.
India push spurs US to knock at Myanmar doors : Indrani Bagchi's blog-The Times Of India
When US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton travels to Yangon later this week, the first such visit in 50 years, New Delhi can claim some credit for the US change of heart.
At least our policy to Myanmar is vindicated, said officials. Over the past couple of years, India has maintained an intensive engagement with the US on the reclusive southeast Asian nation. Since April 2010, MEA and US state department have begun an East Asia dialogue, where Indian diplomats have taken pains to explain to the US why engagement was better than sanctions which hit the poor. To the extent that Indians have been able to convince the US, Myanmar may go down as the first success story of this dialogue. However, the decision by Myanmars president Thein Sein in September to stand up to the Chinese by cancelling a $3.6 billion dam project in Myistone signaled more powerfully than anything else that Myanmar was ready to balance China. India gave $500 milllion in credit to Myanmar in October, soon after Naypyidaws decision.
For years India has fended off US criticism regarding its policy of engagement in Myanmar. When the US and EU were piling on sanctions on Myanmars regime, hoping to see it break under the pressure, Indian diplomats were expounding on the futility of the exercise. Many Indian strategists believe that Myanmars isolation drove it into the arms of China. Indias own decision to embrace the military junta was partly to offset this, partly in response to Myanmars own desire to have options other than China. Indias security concerns regarding northeast militancy have been addressed so some extent by Myanmar, which has spurred India to engage more deeply with the military regime. Therefore, when the junta decided to go in for a reconciliation programme leading up to elections in March 2011, India was cheering from the sidelines. In the past few years, India has intensified its own ties with Myanmar, even being one of the few countries whose diplomats were allowed access to opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. And next month, India will host a parliamentary delegation from Myanmar led by Thura Shwe Mann to take lessons in parliamentary democracy from India.
After Cyclone Nargis, it was then foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee who called the military leadership in Myanmar to persuade them to accept US aid, after they had sent off a US ship which called with foodstuff and relief material. When the monks went on protest in 2008, India resisted US and EU pressure to condemn Myanmar, while quietly advising the junta to desist from violence against unarmed monks. China and India both helped UNs special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari to travel to Yangon during the monks crisis.
In his parliament speech last November, US president barack Obama openly chastised Indias Myanmar policy -- when peaceful democratic movements are suppressed - as they have been in Burma, for example -- then the democracies of the world cannot remain silent. For it is unacceptable to gun down peaceful protestors and incarcerate political prisoners decade after decade. It is unacceptable to hold the aspirations of an entire people hostage to the greed and paranoia of bankrupt regimes. It is unacceptable to steal elections, as the regime in Burma has done again for all the world to see . in international fora, India has often shied away from some of these issues.
India took it on the chin, but, officials say, within a year, US has turned away dramatically from this policy. Clinton will do the US thing of simultaneously offering assistance while lecturing the Myanmar government on democracy and human rights.
But indications are that the fiercely proud but reclusive government may be open to the US. This was evident when Thein Sein released hundreds of political prisoners the day before he arrived in India on October 15, indicating that sanctions too should be lifted. In another sign of economic openness, Thein Sein has also asked the IMF to help unify Myanmars strangely multiple exchange rate which makes trading very difficult currently.Now that Suu Kyi has agreed to contest elections as a political party, it will be easier for the rest of the world to engage Myanmar. To that extent, the overwhelming influence of China in Myanmar can be balanced. As the US re-enters the Indo-Pacific region, balancing China is on top of its agenda.
US engagement in Myanmar will be good news for India, because it balances Indias fears of encirclement by China by its string of pearls.
India push spurs US to knock at Myanmar doors : Indrani Bagchi's blog-The Times Of India
guess why 
