India–Myanmar relations (; ), also knows as Indian–Burmese relations or Indian–Myanmar relations, are the

bilateral relations Bilateralism is the conduct of political, economic, or cultural relations between two sovereign states. It is in contrast to unilateralism or multilateralism, which is activity by a single state or jointly by multiple states, respectively. When ...

between the

Republic of India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. These relations encompass the political, economic and socio-cultural relations that exist between the two neighboring

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

countries. Political relations have improved considerably since 1993, overcoming tensions related to

drug trafficking A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via insuffla ...

, the suppression of democracy and the rule of the military junta in Myanmar.

Political leaders A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

from both countries meet regularly on a bilateral basis and within the

ASEAN Plus Six ASEAN ( , ), officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, military ...

community. Economic relations are considerable with India representing Myanmar's 4th largest export market and the country's 5th largest import partner. The

India–Myanmar border The India–Myanmar border is the international border between India and Myanmar (formerly Burma). The border is in length and runs from the tripoint with China in the north to the tripoint with Bangladesh in the south. Background Description ...

separates the Indian states of Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh in Northeast India from

Kachin State Kachin State ( my, ကချင်ပြည်နယ်; Kachin: ), also known by the endonym Kachinland, is the northernmost state of Myanmar. It is bordered by China to the north and east (Tibet and Yunnan, specifically and respectively); Sh ...

, Sagaing Region and Chin State in Myanmar/Burma. In addition to the long land border, India and Myanmar also share a maritime border along India's

Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between th ...

History

India–Myanmar/Burmese relations date to antiquity and cultural exchanges included Buddhism and the Burmese script, which was based on the Indian Grantha script. In particular, Theravada Buddhism has tremendously influenced Burmese society and culture for millennia, with around 90% of Burma's population continuing to follow the religion. Myanmar (formerly Burma) was made a province of British India by British rulers and again separated in 1937. It was in

Japanese-occupied Burma The Japanese occupation of Burma was the period between 1942 and 1945 during World War II, when Burma was occupied by the Empire of Japan. The Japanese had assisted formation of the Burma Independence Army, and trained the Thirty Comrades ...

that

Indian nationalist Indian nationalism is an instance of territorial nationalism, which is inclusive of all of the people of India, despite their diverse ethnic, linguistic and religious backgrounds. Indian nationalism can trace roots to pre-colonial India, b ...

Subhas Chandra Bose Subhas Chandra Bose ( ; 23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945 * * * * * * * * *) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperia ...

delivered his "Give me blood and I will give you freedom!" slogan, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted Burma's role in the Indian independence movement. Nehru with U Win

India established diplomatic relations after Myanmar's independence from Britain in 1948. For many years, Indo-Burmese relations were strong due to Myanmar previously having been a province of India, due to cultural links, flourishing commerce, common interests in regional affairs and the presence of a significant Indian community in Myanmar. India provided considerable support when Myanmar struggled with regional insurgencies. However, the overthrow of the democratic government by the Military of Myanmar led to strains in ties. Along with much of the world, India condemned the suppression of democracy and Myanmar ordered the expulsion of the Burmese Indian community, increasing its own isolation from the world. Only

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

maintained close links with Myanmar while India supported the pro-democracy movement.Realism in India-Myanmar relations
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Myanmar President Thein Sein

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Myanmar President Thein Sein

A major breakthrough occurred in 1987 when the then- Indian Prime Minister

Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi (; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian politician who served as the sixth prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to beco ...

visited Myanmar, but relations worsened after the military junta's reaction towards pro-democracy movements in 1988, which resulted in an influx of Burmese refugees into India. However, since 1993 the governments of the Indian Prime Ministers

P. V. Narasimha Rao Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao (28 June 1921 – 23 December 2004) was an Indian lawyer, statesman and politician who served as the 9th prime minister of India from 1991 to 1996. He is known for introducing various liberal reforms to Indi ...

and

Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee (; 25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian politician who served three terms as the 10th prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months fr ...

changed course and began to establish warmer relations between the two nations, as part of a wider foreign policy of increasing India's participation and influence in Southeast Asia, in light of the growing influence of the People's Republic of China, an India-Myanmar joint operation destroyed several militant camps of Arakan Army on the Indo-Myanmar border. The action averted a possible threat to the ambitious Kaladan transit and transport project which is important for improving the connectivity in the Northeast. Myanmar is important for India because of the geographic, historical, cultural and economic linkages/ties that span centuries as well as for the overall development of North-Eastern Indian states. India and Myanmar relationship officially got underway after the Treaty of Friendship was signed in 1951..

Economic relations

India is Burma's 4th largest trading partner after Thailand,

and Singapore, and second largest export market after Thailand, absorbing 25 percent of its total exports. India is also the seventh most important source of Burma's imports. The governments of India and Myanmar had set a target of achieving $1 billion and bilateral trade reached US$1.3 billion by 2017. The Indian government has worked to extend air, land and sea routes to strengthen trade links with Myanmar and establish a gas pipeline. While the involvement of India's private sector has been low and growing at a slow pace, both governments are proceeding to enhance cooperation in agriculture, telecommunications, information technology,

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

, oil, natural gas, hydrocarbons and

food processing Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing includes many forms of processing foods, from grinding grain to make raw flour to home cooking to complex industr ...

. The bilateral border trade agreement of 1994 provides for border trade to be carried out from three designated border points, one each in Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland.

Infrastructure initiatives

On 13 February 2001 India and Myanmar inaugurated 250 kilometre Tamu-Kalewa-Kalemyo highway, popularly called the Indo-Myanmar Friendship Road, built mainly by the Indian Army's Border Roads Organisation and aimed to provide a major strategic and commercial transport route connecting North-East India, and South Asia as a whole, to Southeast Asia.

India-Myanmar-Thailand Friendship Highway

India and

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

have agreed to a 4-lane, 3200 km triangular highway connecting India,

and Thailand. The route, which is expected to have completed during 2016, runs from India's northeastern states into Myanmar, where over 1,600 km of roads were built or improved. The route begins from Guwahati in India and connects to

Mandalay Mandalay ( or ; ) is the second-largest city in Myanmar, after Yangon. Located on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, 631km (392 miles) (Road Distance) north of Yangon, the city has a population of 1,225,553 (2014 census). Mandalay was fo ...

, route continues to Yangon in

and then to Mae Sot in Thailand, which then continues to Bangkok. India is undertaking two sections of the Trilateral Highway namely, (i) construction of Kalewa-Yagyi road section in Myanmar, and (ii) construction of 69 bridges on the Tamu-Kyigone-Kalewa (TKK) road section in Myanmar. The work on both these sections has been awarded on Engineering, Procurement and Construction mode and is underway since May 2018 for Kalewa-Yagyi section and November 2017 for the TKK section. The first phase connecting Guwahati to

will eventually be extended to Cambodia and Vietnam under Mekong-Ganga Cooperation within the wider framework of

Asian Highway Network The Asian Highway Network (AH), also known as the Great Asian Highway, is a cooperative project among countries in Asia and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) to improve their connectivity via hig ...

. This is aimed at creating a new

economic zone Economic zone may refer to: * Exclusive economic zone, an area of sea over which a sovereign state has special rights * Special economic zone A special economic zone (SEZ) is an area in which the business and trade laws are different from the ...

ranging from Kolkata on the Bay of Bengal to

Ho Chi Minh City , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

on the South China Sea.

Kaladan Multi-modal Transit Route

The

Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project The Kaladan Road Project is a US$484 million project connecting the eastern Indian seaport of Kolkata with Sittwe seaport in Rakhine State, Myanmar by sea. In Myanmar, it will then link Sittwe seaport to Paletwa in Chin State via the Kaladan riv ...

will connect the eastern Indian seaport of Kolkata with Sittwe seaport in

by sea; it will then link Sittwe seaport to Lashio in

via Kaladan river boat route and then from Lashio on to Mizoram in India by road transport. The project was scheduled to be completed by 2014 according to

Governor of Mizoram This is a list of governors of Mizoram, an Indian state part of Northeast India Powers and functions The Governor enjoys many different types of powers: *Executive powers related to administration, appointments and removals, *Legislative p ...

Vakkom Purushothaman., but as of Nov 2014 it is likely to be completed by 2016.

Visas

During a 2017 visit to

Nay Pyi Taw Naypyidaw, officially spelled Nay Pyi Taw (; ), is the capital and third-largest city of Myanmar. The city is located at the centre of the Naypyidaw Union Territory. It is unusual among Myanmar's cities, as it is an entirely planned city out ...

Prime Minister Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the List of Prime Ministers of India, 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the List of chief ministers of Gujarat, Chief Minist ...

announced that India would offer gratis/no-cost

visas Visa most commonly refers to: * Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allo ...

to all Myanmar citizens visiting India.

Strategic cooperations

India's move to forge close relations with

are motivated by a desire to counter

's growing influence as a regional leader and enhance its own influence and standing. Concerns and tensions increased in India over China's extensive military involvement in developing ports, naval and intelligence facilities and industries, specifically the upgrading of a naval base in Sittwe, a major seaport located close to the eastern Indian city of Kolkata. India's engagement of the Burmese military junta has helped ease the regime's

international isolation International isolation is a penalty applied by the international community or a sizeable or powerful group of countries, like the United Nations, towards one nation, government or group of people. The same term may also refer to the state a coun ...

and lessen Burma's reliance on China. Both nations sought to cooperate to counteract drug trafficking and insurgent groups operating in the border areas. India and Myanmar are leading members of

BIMSTEC The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is an international organisation of seven South Asian and Southeast Asian nations, housing 1.73 billion people and having a combined gross domestic pro ...

and the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation, along with Vietnam,

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...

, Cambodia and Thailand, helping India develop its influence and ties amongst

Southeast Asian Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

nations. In 2013, India provided a loan of about US$500million. to

for its development; India and Myanmar have also agreed to cooperate militarily in order to help modernize Myanmar's military. In 2020, India gifted the Myanmar navy its first ever submarine, a

kilo class The Kilo class, Soviet designation Project 877 ''Paltus'' (russian: Па́лтус, meaning "halibut"), NATO reporting name Kilo, is a class of diesel-electric attack submarines originally designed in the 1970s and built in the Soviet Unio ...

( INS Sindhuvir) attack submarine which has been refurbished and modernised by

Hindustan Shipyard Limited Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) is a shipyard located in Visakhapatnam on the east coast of India. History Founded as the ''Scindia Shipyard'', it was built by industrialist Walchand Hirachand as a part of The Scindia Steam Navigation Company ...

Security ties

Indian and Myanmar troops carried out jointly Operation Sunrise and Operation Sunrise 2 in 2019 in their respective territories to destroy several insurgent camps. However the threat to the

Kaladan The Kaladan River ( my, ကုလားတန်မြစ်, ; also Kysapnadi, Beino, Bawinu and Kolodyne) is a river in eastern Mizoram State of India, and in Chin State and Rakhine State of western Myanmar. The Kaladan River is called the Chh ...

multi-modal transit transport project, India's gateway to Southeast Asia continues. In January 2023 operations by the Myanmar Air Force in a sparsely populated area along the border were carried out; proximity of local populations resulted in their disquiet. India has also supported Myanmar in its efforts to combat Rohingya insurgent groups like the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) and Aqa Mul Mujahideen (AMM), after Indian intelligence agencies found the ARSA and AMM to have links with terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) as well as reported Rohingya terrorists fighting alongside Pakistani extremists in Kashmir.

Disaster relief

India responded promptly and effectively in rendering assistance after natural disaster in Myanmar such as the earthquake in Shan state (2010) Cyclone Mora (2017), and Komen (2015). India offered to help in capacity building in disaster risk mitigation as well as strengthening Myanmar's National Disaster Response Mechanism.

Covid-19 vaccines

India granted 1.7 million Covid-19 vaccines to Myanmar in the months of January and February of 2021.

Human rights

India was hesitant in reacting to the

2007 Burmese anti-government protests The Saffron Revolution ( my, ရွှေဝါရောင်တော်လှန်ရေး) was a series of economic and political protests and demonstrations that took place during August, September, and October 2007 in Myanmar. The pro ...

that had drawn overwhelming international condemnation. India also declared that it had no intention of interfering in Burma's internal affairs and that the

Burmese people Burmese people or Myanma people ( my, မြန်မာလူမျိုး) are citizens or people from Myanmar (Burma), irrespective of their ethnic or religious background. Myanmar is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-lingual count ...

would have to achieve democracy by themselves as it respects the sovereignty of Myanmar. This low-key response has been widely criticised both within India and abroad as weakening India's credentials as a leading democratic nation. In contrast to much of the international community,

declined to criticize

Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi (; ; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Minister of Foreign Affairs from ...

's handling of the 2016–17 Northern Rakhine State clashes or Myanmar's government's treatment of its Rohingya people. India also announced plans to deport its Rohingya refugee population. Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju described the refugees as "illegal immigrants", echoing the Myanmar government position. Although the Rohingya have fought deportation in the Indian courts (partly on humanitarian grounds), in September 2017 the Indian government responded that India did not sign the

1951 Refugee Convention The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, also known as the 1951 Refugee Convention or the Geneva Convention of 28 July 1951, is a United Nations multilateral treaty that defines who a refugee is, and sets out the rights of individuals ...

and most Rohingya arrived in India before the August 2017 violence. Some Indian media have reported that the country's intelligence agencies suspect militant Royhinga leaders of conspiring with Pakistani terrorists and planning to incite violence in India."Varun Gandhi's View On Rohingya Draws Big Put-Down From Government"
26 September 2017, NDTV.com, retrieved 26 September 2017