By IANS,
Shillong: Myanmar Saturday sought military assistance from India to start operations against anti-India insurgent groups taking shelter in its territory, a top diplomat said.
“We have requested India for military assistance for coordinated action against militants, and India has agreed to provide us with our military requirements,” Myanmar’s ambassador to India U. Kyi Thein told IANS on the sidelines of an international conference on “From Landlocked to Landlinked: North East India in BIMSTEC”.
Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is an international organisation involving in South Asia and South East Asian countries with Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal as its members.
“We also have a militancy problem and we understand India’s concerns and wanted this problem to be sorted out. But military operations against militants would start only if India provides us with our requirements,” Thein said.
He, however, refused to divulge the kind of military assistance Myanmar has sought from India.
Three northeastern states – Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram – share a 1,643-km unfenced border with Myanmar.
Rebels belonging to the United National Liberation Front, People’s Liberation Army – the armed wing of the Revolutionary People’s Front, the warring factions of the NSCN have set up their tactical bases in Myanmar.
Myanmar’s military junta has its own share of insurgency problems with outfits like the Kachin Independent Army (KIA) and Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) operating in different parts of the country.
“Poverty and lack of education is encouraging militancy. We (India-Myanmar) need to work together to solve these issues,” the Myanmar envoy said.
Myanmar’s policy, he added, is now to develop infrastructure along the border with special emphasis on connectivity. “There is the need to extend the railway line from Jiribam (in Manipur) to the nearest rail network in Myanmar,” he added.
“Myanmar-India connectivity is now better than before, but much more remains to be done. It will be more beneficial if the connectivity between the two countries is enhanced, and both countries must work in that direction,” Thein maintained.