Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury
Oct 03, 2020
NEW DELHI: Army Chief MM Naravane and Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Foreign Secretary will visit Myanmar as part of efforts to expand wide ranging partnership. The timing of the visit is significant coming ahead of national elections in Myanmar and would help to boost leadership’s goals for the country’s future welfare.
Security cooperation is getting stronger in recent years in the fight to end insurgency in India's northeast. In a big win for India’s back-door diplomacy, 22 Indian insurgents were handed over for the first time by Myanmar in May, bringing Naypyidaw in sync with New Delhi on dealing with insurgents, sources told ET.
Myanmar is India’s closest defence partner in the region. India-Myanmar Bilateral Army Exercise (IMBAX) builds and promotes closer relations with armies. The presence of General Naravane in Foreign Secretary’s delegation will surely give further boost to security cooperation between the two countries, sources explained.
The timing of the visit is important as Myanmar goes for elections next month. Both Shringla and Naravane have earlier dealt with Myanmar, former as Joint Secretary and the latter as Defence Attache at the Embassy of India in Yangon. They will get a first-hand idea about Myanmar’s future course in its democratization process, sources added.
During their visit, the delegation will call on the State Counsellor of Myanmar, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar Armed Forces, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
In the recent times, both sides have strengthened their cooperation in several areas, including connectivity and trade, development projects, energy, capacity building, defence and security and culture and people to people links. India will also help Myanmar with anti-Covid vaccine. The two sides held Foreign Office Consultations on Thursday.
During the State Visit of the Prime Minister of India to Myanmar in May 2012, an MoU was signed on India-Myanmar Border Area Development. The MoU provides for USD 5 million each year over a period of 5 years. This MoU has been extended till 2022. The program, which is in an advanced stage, has seen the successful implementation of around 140 projects such as roads and bridges, health care centres, schools, and other such infrastructure projects, sources said.
These projects, undertaken in the Chin State and Naga Self-Administered Zone, have been known to deliver enormous benefits to the people and been empowering the local communities. In August 2020, the Ambassador of India to Myanmar handed over a cheque of $ 5 million to Lt-Gen Ye Aung, Minister for Border Affairs, Government of Myanmar for the 3rd year projects. Both sides will soon commence work on identifying projects to be undertaken in the fifth cycle.
India as a close friend, partner, and neighbor of both Bangladesh and Myanmar has a deep and abiding interest to see an early stabilization of the situation in the Rakhine State. “India supports safe, sustainable, and speedy repatriation of displaced persons from Bangladesh to Rakhine State based on the understanding between Bangladesh and Myanmar. India fully understands the urgency of this situation and has committed humanitarian efforts in both Myanmar and Bangladesh to facilitate an early return of the displaced persons.?????? India has provided 5 tranches of relief supplies to Bangladesh and is willing to do more,” a source explained.
An MoU on Rakhine State Development Program was signed in December 2017. Through this program, India is extending socio-economic development assistance for projects pertaining to health, education, agriculture, and allied activities to Rakhine State through a grant-in-aid of USD 5 million per annum. The first phase of the program involved the construction of 250 modern pre-fabricated houses. India also supplied 20,000 humanitarian kits of rice, noodles, etc to Internally Displaced People in the Rakhine State.
For the second phase, 12 projects including building an incinerator, solar projects, agricultural mechanization, and road construction in Rakhine State are currently being implemented. India is also providing library material to schools in Rakhine state under trilateral cooperation with Japan. For the third phase, India has suggested the establishment of a skills training centre in Rakhine. All these efforts are aimed at ensuring an early return of displaced persons to Rakhine State in Myanmar.
India and Myanmar have been cooperating in a number of developmental projects. India’s development cooperation in Myanmar is close to $ 1.4 billion. India has invested in a host of connectivity projects in Myanmar, such as the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project and Trilateral Highway connecting India, Myanmar and Thailand. These projects once operationalized are expected to enhance bilateral trade and contribute to the development and prosperity of the people living in the land-locked northeastern region of India, sources explained. Currently, commercial bilateral trade stands at $ 1.5 billion.
As a close neighbor of Myanmar, India supports the initiatives promoting peace, prosperity, and stability in Myanmar. In this regard, India has been undertaking a number of developmental projects under the Rakhine State Development Programme, Border Area Development Programme. Till date, India has established capacity building initiatives in the fields of agricultural research, industrial training, e-learning technology, entrepreneurship development, English language training, and IT skill training. etc, and is cooperating in many more avenues. Both countries are also actively engaged in enhancing cooperation in the fields of energy and power sectors.
India and Myanmar enjoy a robust and expanding partnership in the area of energy cooperation and both sides recognize the mutual benefit of greater integration in the energy sector between the two countries, sources informed.
With investments of over $ 1.2 billion, Myanmar has the highest Indian energy investment in any country in South Asia. Recently India approved an investment of over $ 120 million in the Shwe Oil and Gas project.
The bilateral cooperation received further boost during the visit of the President of Myanmar to India in February 2020 when both sides signed an MOU for Cooperation in the Field of Petroleum Products which inter alia, underlines that both sides will cooperate in refining, stockpiling, blending, and retail, among other areas.
The institutional mechanism to guide bilateral cooperation in the energy sector is the JWG on Oil and Gas headed at the Secretary level on both sides. The last meeting (second) of the JWG took place in June 2020.
Indian PSU's are active in the upstream and midstream sector in the oil and gas sphere in Myanmar. PSUs in the energy sector including ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), and GAIL have opened their offices in Yangon. OVL and GAIL have stakes in the Shwe Gas Field. GAIL is exporting petrochemical products to Myanmar. Indian private sector players are also active in Myanmar. India and Myanmar are also looking to cooperate in the area of energy efficiency.
Myanmar has recently ratified the amendment to the Framework Agreement of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) which would enable the expansion of the scope of ISA membership to all Member States of the United Nations.
In August 2016, in a severe earthquake many of the pagodas and stupas sustained damages. Subsequently during the visit of the President of Myanmar in August 2016, India had agreed to offer technical and financial help to Myanmar for the conservation and restoration of the damages structures and paintings. The MoU between India and Myanmar for the Conservation of Earthquake Damages Pagodas in Bagan was signed on 11 May 2018. The Archaeological Survey of India had identified 12 pagodas for renovation under the first phase. The work for the restoration of the pagodas commenced in January 2020 by a team from ASI. The project cost is Rs 21 crore for first phase.
The conservation work of Ananda Temple was started by the Archaeological Survey of India in the month of May 2012 before the visit of Prime Minister of India to Myanmar. The effective working season at Bagan is from around October to May every year as for the rest of months the weather is very extreme due to which it is difficult to carry on with the conservation operations. Accordingly, the conservation activities were performed for around three weeks in the month of May and then after a brief stoppage, the conservation work was restarted from the 2nd week of October 2012 The conservation and restoration of the Ananda Temple in Bagan was completed in 2018. The project cost was Rs 11.54 cr.
Renovation of stone inscription temples and Zayat of King Bagyidaw and King Mindon at Bodh Gaya was undertaken at a proposed cost of Rs 0.80 cr under full MEA funding. The project was completed in 2018.
Link:https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/army-chief-naravane-and-foreign-secretary-shringla-to-travel-to-myanmar-on-sunday/articleshow/78464398.cms
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