Senior Indian Military Officials Held Talks With Myanmar Military
- India has strengthened its military ties with the Myanmar junta since the 2021 coup.
- Indian military officials have been engaging with Myanmar’s junta leaders to discuss cooperation on border security, development, and exchange of trainees and technology.
- India is the third-biggest supplier of arms and equipment to the junta, trailing only Russia and China.
- Rights group Justice for Myanmar has urged governments and companies doing business with India’s military and defense industry to use their leverage to urge New Delhi to ban all support for Myanmar’s junta.
- India continues to invest in Myanmar, supplying the regime with sources of revenue and providing assistance for the proposed election, which has been denounced as a sham designed to maintain the military’s grip on power.
A senior Indian military official, Maj-Gen Ajay Kumar Singh, met with the Myanmar military’s one of the most influential people, General Maung Maung Aye, in the capital city Naypyitaw on Monday to discuss training and academic cooperation between the two sides. They talked about promoting friendship between the two militaries, increasing cooperation in defense, training, border stability, and rule of law, and exchanging trainees. This visit marks the first time an Indian general has met with Maung Maung Aye since military intelligence director Maj-Gen Charanjeet Singh Dewgun’s meeting in June. The discussion occurred the same month as the talks between the new Chinese ambassador to Myanmar, Ma Jia, and junta Defense Minister General Tin Aung San in late August in Naypyitaw, where they discussed joint training with the People’s Liberation Army. Despite most of the international community shunning the Myanmar junta for its human rights violations, India has strengthened its military ties with the generals since the 2021 coup. It continues to engage with them even after they fail to quash the popular revolution.
