As U Min Aung Hlaing, a top military commander-turnedPresident of Myanmar (formerly Burma or Brahmadesh), completed his five-day official visit to India, political observers have begun analysing its aftermath. Myanmar, which borders India’s far eastern region, is expected to derive benefits on several fronts ranging from security and connectivity to development. Elevated to the civilian post following a debated national election held during December 2025 and January 2026 in the Southeast Asian nation, Hlaing chose India for his first overseas visit.
With the impoverished country of 55 million, predominantly Buddhist people facing a civil war and the quasi-democratic government controlling less than half its territory, the visit emerged as an urgent necessity for Hlaing, while New Delhi viewed it as an opportunity to deepen bilateral ties with its eastern neighbour. Hlaing landed at the Buddhist pilgrimage site of Bodh Gaya in Bihar on 30 May with a delegation of ministers, government officials and business representatives. He held an important meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 1 June in New Delhi.
Both leaders exchanged views on fostering multifaceted cooperation across economic, religious, cultural and social sectors with the aim of strengthening longstanding ties between the governments and peoples of the two countries. Hlaing also met a number of high-profile dignitaries, including President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Before departing from Mumbai on 3 June, he held discussions with India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on various pertinent issues and also attended trade and investment forums in both the political and commercial capitals of India.
Even though Modi and Hlaing did not address the media following their meeting, foreign ministry spokespersons stated that discussions covered trade, border management, defence cooperation and various regional issues. Both sides emphasised preventing any misuse of their respective territories for activities harmful to neighbouring countries. Hlaing reportedly assured that Myanmar would not allow its territory to be used by separatist insurgents against India’s security interests.
Modi also raised concerns over the implications of armed groups operating in Myanmar’s border areas stretching over 1,600 kilometres and the consequences of subsequent military operations against them. The conflict, he is understood to have conveyed, has forced many people to flee into Indian territory, affecting communities in bordering localities. The stalled Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project, which aims to connect Sittwe port in Rakhine (Arakan) State to India’s landlocked Northeast, was also discussed. The project, originally expected to become operational nearly a decade ago, continues to face delays primarily because of political instability inside Myanmar.
Another project, the India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway, intended to strengthen connectivity between India and Southeast Asia, has also remained delayed because of Myanmar’s unstable security situation. Both projects remain central to New Delhi’s ‘Neighbourhood First’, ‘Act East’ and ‘MAHASAGAR’ policies. Modi also reportedly pushed for sustainable peace and democracy in Myanmar while raising the issue of jailed pro-democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who has remained under detention since the military coup of 1 February 2021, led by Hlaing himself as commander-in-chief of the Burmese army.
Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy (NLD) government was removed from office, is currently serving a long sentence under house arrest in Naypyitaw and is speculated to be suffering from several physical ailments. Meanwhile, Myanmar continues to descend into instability as ethnic armed organisations and People’s Defence Forces launched coordinated offensives in October 2023, resulting in large numbers of townships and rural areas coming under anti-junta control.
The country remains devastated as anti-junta forces continue offensives across multiple regions while military operations, including airstrikes, have allegedly destroyed villages and displaced civilians. Thousands have reportedly been killed or injured, millions detained or displaced, and over a hundred media professionals arrested since the coup. Recently, the World Food Programme reported that one in four people in Myanmar is facing acute food insecurity. The Strategic Initiative Forum (SIF), a broad democratic alliance comprising 20 ethnic revolutionary organisations representing Karenni, Karen, Kachin, Mon, Arakan and other communities, along with political parties and civil society groups, strongly criticised Hlaing’s visit to India.
Formed in 2022 to advocate for a federal democratic Myanmar, the SIF argued that Hlaing lacks an electoral mandate and should not be recognised as the legitimate President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. The alliance stated that Myanmar’s last free and fair election took place on 8 November 2020, in which the NLD secured a decisive victory while the junta-backed USDP remained a distant second. Referring to the recent three-phase election, the SIF alleged that more than 40 political parties, including the NLD, were dissolved before polling and thousands of political activists detained.
It also claimed that international organisations including the United Nations, ASEAN, the European Union, Human Rights Watch and ANFREL had rejected the electoral process as illegitimate. The forum further argued that the junta currently controls less than half of Myanmar’s territory and that large areas were excluded from voting. In some regions, voter turnout reportedly remained as low as five per cent. Earlier, Justice for Myanmar (JFM), a network of anti-military activists, also criticised New Delhi for hosting Hlaing, alleging that India was conferring “false legitimacy” on the Burmese military.
The exile administration, the National Unity Government (NUG), formed by ousted lawmakers following the coup, also expressed dissatisfaction over Hlaing’s visit. However, after returning to Naypyitaw, Hlaing described his India visit as successful and rewarding, according to the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar.
He also urged resistance groups operating along the India–Myanmar border to join the peace process. “If relevant stakeholders along the Indian border want the good of the country, they need to cooperate through peaceful means and strive together,” Hlaing reportedly said, adding that resistance groups elsewhere in Myanmar should also pursue democratic political solutions to enable national progress.
THE WRITER IS A GUWAHATI-BASED SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE STATESMAN.