Giridhar Armane. (File photo)
New Delhi: The defence secretary, Giridhar Aramane, embarked on a two-day official visit to Myanmar, on Friday. During his visit, he called on the country’s leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who is the chairman of Myanmar’s State Administrative Council, in the Burmese capital, Nay Pyi Taw (Naypyidaw).
Armane also held talks with the Burmese defence minister, Gen Mya Tun Oo (retured) and held meetings with the commander-in-chief of the Burmese navy, Admiral Moe Aung, and the chief defence industries, Lieutenant General Khan Myint Than.
The defence secretary’s Myanmar visit comes at a time when Manipur, which borders the country where several militant groups operating in India’s northeast, is under the grip of interethnic violence. Several militant groups belonging to different ethnic groups in Manipur are based in Myanmar near its border with India.
According to a defence ministry statement, Armane’s visit provided an opportunity to raise matters relating to India’s security with the senior leadership of Myanmar. During the meetings, the two sides discussed issues related to maintenance of tranquillity in the border areas, illegal transborder movements, and transnational crimes, like narcotics trafficking and smuggling of other contraband and prohibited items, like weapons.
Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to ensure that their respective territories would not be allowed to be used for any activities inimical to the other. Armane is scheduled to return to India on Saturday.
It may be mentioned that India shares an approximately 1,700-kilometre-long border with Myanmar. Any developments in that country have a direct impact on India’s bordering regions, like the anti-Rohingya pogroms that started in 2016 and the military’s dismissal of the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, in February 2022.
Apart from that, as mentioned before, several militant groups operating in Myanmar. Several of them belong to different ethnic groups who are also indigenous people of Manipur. The state is now witnessing a deadly cycle of interethnic violence, in which the militant groups are believed to be actively involved, creating a civil war-like situation.
Earlier, India has taken military action against those groups inside Burmese territory with the consent of the Burmese regime, like the much-publicized June 2015 raid in militant camps. During that raid, elite commandos from the Indian Army’s Parachute Regiment (Para SF) eliminated several dozen militants and destroyed their bases.
