Institute of Social Sciences India-Myanmar Relations Looking from the Border Conference Report 28 -29 September 2015 New Delhi, India Amb. Rajiv Bhatia, Former Ambassador to Myanmar, Dr. Ash Narain Roy, Director, Institute of Social Sciences, Dr. Axel Harneit-Sievers, Director, Heinrich Böll Foundation, New Delhi, Mr. Tapir Gao, Former MP, Arunachal Pradesh, Dr. Alana Golmei, Director, Burma Centre Delhi. 2 C O N T E N T S 1. Welcome Address - 2 Dr. Ash Narain Roy, Director, Institute of Social Sciences 2. Keynote Address - 6 Shri Rajiv Bhatia, former Ambassador to Myanmar & former Director General, Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi 3. The Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project - 7 Mr. Lian Bawi Thang, Mr. Ting Oo, Mr. Alec Blyth Scott from Kaladan Movement 4. Crossing the Indo-Myanmar Border: Fear, Cooperation and Mistrust in Act East Policy - 10 Dr. Puyam Rakesh Singh, Center for East Asian Studies, SIS, JNU 5. A Third Space Perspective Forging an Intelligent, Emotional Space for Engagement - 19 Sabyasachi Dutta, Director, Asian Confluence, Shillong 6. India-Myanmar Relations: Looking from Mizoram Border - 22 C. Lalremruata, Director, Zo Indigenous Forum, Aizawl 7. India's Northeast: Transforming a Troubled Frontier into a Gateway - 24 Ambuj Thakur, Independent Researcher, Dibrugarh, Assam 8. BCIM Corridor, Looking from the Northeast: Opportunities and Challenges for Myanmar - 27 Dr. Sonu Trivedi, Department of Political Science, Zakir Hussain College, University of Delhi 9. Democracy transition in Burma: Democratization or Liberalization? - 32 Myat Thu, Director, Yangon School of Political Science, Myanmar 10. India Policy Challenges in Myanmar - 35 Dr. Udai Bhanu Singh, Senior Research Associate, IDSA 11. India-Myanmar Relations and India's Act East Policy: Challenges and Perspectives of Securing the Sub- region - 37 Dr. Biswajit Mohapatra, Department of Political Science, North East Hill University, Shillong 3 12. Indo-Myanmar Relations: Security, Corporate Trade or People-Centred? - 43 Dr. Walter Fernandes, Senior Fellow, North-Eastern Social Research Centre, Guwahati 13. Border Trade, Security and Trans-border Militancy - 48 Rahul Bhonsle, Director, Security Risk Asia 14. India-Myanmar Relations: Border Trade, Security and Trans-Border Militancy - 50 C.S. Kuppuswamy, Consultant with the South Asia Analysis Group 15. Border Trade, Security and Trans Trade - 55 W. Nabachandra Singh, President, Indo-Myanmar Border Trader's Union, Manipur 16. Indo-Myanmar Border Trade: Challenges and Opportunities - 57 Dr. Shwe Hein, CEO, Chinland Development Co. Ltd 17. Role of Civil Society and Media in India-Myanmar Relations: A Perspective from Manipur - 59 Rajkumar Bobichand, Director, Change and Peace Building 18. Two Tracks Relations: Civil Societies to Civil Societies, Government to Government - 62 Khin Maung Win, Democratic Voice of Burma 19. Intra-State Dynamics in China-Myanmar Relations: The Case of Yunnan Province - 63 Ramya, P.S, Ph.D Scholar, South Asian University 20. China factor in Indo- Myanmar Relations: A Myanmar Perspective - 84 Zeya Thu, Editor, The Voice, Myanmar 21. Intra-Regional and Inter-Regional Dynamics and China Factor - 86 Prof. Srikanth Kondapalli, Centre for East Asian Studies, Chinese Division, JNU, New Delhi 22. India-Burma Relations & the China factor: Towards Regional Security - 88 Dr. Babhananda Takhellambam, Department of History, C.I College, Bishnupur, Manipur 23. Challenges, Concerns and Recommendations - 90 24. India's Act East Policy and Manipur's Dilemma - 92 Malem Ningthouja 4 Welcome Address Ash Narain Roy he title of this seminar could as well have been "The Changing Face of India-Myanmar TRelations". Let me elaborate. Most Indians who admire Myanmar are either in their 60s or are stuck in the Burma of 60s. They speak nostalgically of culture, religion and spirituality uniting India and Myanmar. They are often uncritical of India-Burma relations….Those were the days of a very popular Hindi song, Mere piya gaye Rangoon, kiya hai wahan se telephoon, Tumhari Yaad satati hai…" The old timers in both India and Myanmar think exactly that way. But then that was yesterday. Today is different. Geography, they say, is often the mother of history. India and Myanmar are bound by both history and geography. Fukuyamas of the world and other Western geopolitical sages must be wondering why did they proclaim the premature "end of history" and "end of geography". The 21st century is witnessing constant tremors of a tectonic shift in global power relations. The centre of the world is shifting east. The power within the geographical landscape is shifting from the Atlantic world to the Asia-Pacific. The Asia-Pacific is itself witnessing a tectonic shift. If the US is rebooting its policy towards Asia, Japan is articulating its policy in terms of the "Democratic Security Diamond" and we are all familiar with China's "Maritime Silk Road". India therefore had to respond to this new reality. Hence the "Act East" policy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has focused substantial attention on developing and strengthening relations with South East Asian countries. It has interacted bilaterally and in regional groupings like the ASEAN Regional Forum and the East Asian Summit. This has involved a delicate balancing between an increasingly assertive China on the one hand and its maritime neighbours such as Myanmar, Singapore, Japan, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia on the other. India is defining and initiating a clearly more active role for itself in the Indo-Pacific Region. India-Myanmar ties are very critical. After all, India's second longest border-both land and maritime together-- is with Myanmar. Today there is new hope and new optimism. But let us not forget the old despair. India-Myanmar 5 ties suffered in the past from willful negligence. It is such a past that occasionally creates a dampener. It is true; Myanmar provides a corridor to South East Asia. But must India-Myanmar ties be necessarily seen through the prism of security and strategic considerations? Or will not improved economic ties improve security ties? Absence of proper banking and financial services are a major roadblock. According to the Indian authorities, the Myanmar government has not given the requisite permissions to set up banking facilities here. Myanmar says Indian banks have not shown any serious interest to invest. In fact, recently one Myanmar minister said that Indian companies are so far only "window shopping" in Myanmar. India's growing engagement with South East Asia in general and Myanmar in particular has raised the stakes for the people of North-East India. The region has become India's trade gateway to the ASEAN countries. The North East is expected to act as the strategic catalyst and a game changer. We are very happy that we have eminent people from the North-Eastern States have participated in this seminar and contributed papers for this volume. These papers give us the insights to comprehend how the North Eastern region sees the prospects of India-Myanmar relations and our "Act East" policy? Will they become crucial players or will there be another false dawn? After all, as they say, political leaders often try to sell platinum when all they have is steel. In our discussion on India-Myanmar ties, China definitely comes in. Unlike China, India cannot afford to go by the "blankchequebook diplomacy" because we donot have deep pocket but can we continue with "reluctant partnership?" Things have started happening. In 2004, India imported 100,000 tonnes of rice from Myanmar to prevent a shortfall in foodstock in Manipur and Mizoram. It was due to the construction work on the railway line connecting the two States. India has offered industrial parks along India-Myanmar- Thailand trilateral highway. Creating a special economic zone is also being talked about. Since the subtitle of our seminar is "Looking from the Border", let me add just a line and two. We are living in intensely paradoxical times. While borders are becoming more permeable in some parts of the world, they are being reconstructed in many other parts of the globe. Walls and fences only create a false sense of physical security. Walls make the 'other' invisible. Invisibility breeds ignorance and creates a new dimension of fear-the fear of the other. Borders must not be allowed to become boundaries, they must become the bridge. This is the task before hand. Finally, India's protestations of love for Myanmar have elicited only a whisper of approval. No Bollywood-style dancing around trees as yet. And forget about spending a night out. We are told by a minister, "it is not our culture." We hope there will be a marriage between the two countries. But whether it will be a marriage without romance or a marriage where jealousy is greater than love remains to be seen. 6 Keynote Address Rajiv Bhatia ndia's Act East Policy is not a replacement of the Look East Policy but it is the consolidation, Iextension, expansion and diversification of India's policy to accord a high degree of importance to South EastAsia and EastAsia. Secondly, as the name and the switch suggest, the focus now has to be on action and on implementation and from that point of view it is a welcome switch because this has been a constant criticism in the past. The very fact that we have a switch from "Look" to "Act" is clear and we need to monitor the further evolution of this policy from that viewpoint. Thirdly, while the earlier components of the policy i.e., economic cooperation between India and South East Asia would continue, the question of strategic cooperation will increase gradually. Fourthly, in terms of geographical spread, Look East Policy focuses considerably on ASEAN and in our context on sub- ASEAN relationship. Now the focus should be to emphasise more on the extra ASEAN side of the canvas which, as we have noticed in the last eighteen months, a great deal of attention being paid to China, Japan, Australia, South Korea and Pacific island states.