To get its act going in Myanmar, India would need very dynamic diplomacy and not the lazy all-eggs-in-one-basket approach, points out Subir Bhaumik.
Indian security agencies have arrested seven foreign nationals, including a US security analyst and six Ukrainians, for allegedly entering India illegally from Myanmar and suspected of training insurgent groups. The arrests have raised concerns about security vulnerabilities along the India-Myanmar border and triggered diplomatic friction.
Burmese Prime Minister-in-exile, Thien Win received the award on her behalf, which was presented by South African Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim.
United States President Barack Obama said on Friday that Hillary Clinton would travel to Myanmar, the first trip to the country by a US secretary of state for 50 years, to hold talks with the government and the pro-democracy leaders including Aung San Suu Kyi, a day after the American president held a first-ever conversation with the freedom icon.
Worried that any repressive measures in Myanmar will lead to instability that will have an impact on this country, India hopes dialogue will soon begin between the junta and imprisoned pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The leader of Myanmar's National League for Democracy Aung San Suu Kyi was sworn in to Myanmar's parliament on Wednesday. Suu Kyi's has been an advocate of democracy in Myanmar and was elected as a parliamentarian.
On the eve of his historic visit to Myanmar, Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday indicated that Britain would respond to pro-democracy changes in the country by easing sanctions against it.
Naga splinter groups impatient with stalled talks as well as rebel Manipuri groups who have a stake in disrupting upcoming elections to the state assembly, are believed to be regrouping in the borderlands of China's Yunnan province and Myanmar, taking advantage of the turmoil in the latter by using it as a transit corridor.
Marking a historic trip to Myanmar, a senior United States lawmaker on Saturday met pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi as well as the country's military ruler Than Shew and secured the release of an American, who had been jailed for secretly visiting the residence of the detained leader. Democrat Senator Jim Webb became the first senior US official to meet the reclusive Myanmar general in the capital Naypyidaw.
The United States has announced sanctions against 14 senior Myanmar officials, and called on India, China and other nations to support the people of Myanmar who were struggling for democracy.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee met his Myanmarese counterpart U Nyan Win in New York on Monday
Myanmar's Foreign Minister Nyan Win, in a letter sent to Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Friday, confirmed his nation had agreed to the visit by Paolo Sergio Pinheiro, the S-G's Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar. The announcement comes as Ibrahim Gambari, UN's Special Envoy for Myanmar, continued his consultations with the troubled country's neighbours and regional partners ahead of a planned return trip to Myanmar next month.
Asked to comment on happenings in Myanmar, the new army chief said Indian armed forces had good relations with the armed forces of that country and "we are for maintaining these close relationships".
Recently, First Lady Laura Bush, during a video teleconference in recognition of International Human Rights Day, said: "India, one of Burma's (Myanmar) closest trading partners, has stopped selling arms to the junta." However, a spokesman for the Indian Embassy in Washington declined to comment on the story.
India should to adopt a more nuanced political approach while continuing the present policy of economic support to the Junta regime in Myanmar, says B Raman
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will travel to Myanmar later this week where he will meet pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
After a landslide victory in the bye-elections will Myanmar's pro-democracy icon play the role of a constructive opposition or will she choose to maintain her political independence by not accepting any role under the present government. Senior analyst B Raman raises the big questions
The United States and the United Kingdom on Tuesday led global condemnation of the sentencing of Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown pressing for United Nations sanctions on the country's military junta. A court in Myanmar found Suu Kyi guilty of violating an internal security law and sentenced her to three years in prison with hard labour, but it was commuted to 18 months of house arrest by the country's military supremo.
Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been sentenced to an additional 18 months' house arrest by a court in Rangoon, says a BBC report.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party sailed through the two-thirds majority it needs to rule, claiming 348 parliamentary seats with a number of results yet to be declared.
India's hitherto insignificant engagement in the developments in the changing Myanmar ( was the focus of the interaction held in Guwahati with speakers aligning with pro-democracy movement in Burma exhorting upon India to rise to the occasion and become discernible in its engagement in the neighbouring country.
Ahead of his meeting with his Myanmarese counterpart, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday hoped the ongoing dialogue between the military junta and pro-democracy leaders will have a "satisfactory outcome".
Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi won a seat in the country's lower house of parliament on Sunday after defeating her two rival candidates in a by-election in her constituency, the main opposition party said.
Aung San Suu Kyi spent her 58th birthday on Thursday in Yangon's forbidding Insein prison.
AFC Cup tie moved to neutral venue after Australia denies Myanmar club visas
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy is expected to make big gains in the polls.
Myanmar's pro-democracy leader has begun a hunger strike.
The talks between Singh and Suu Kyi, the leader of the opposition, will take place at Hotel Sedona, where the prime minister will stay during his brief stay in Myanmar's commercial capital, on the morning of Tuesday
Contending that Myanmar's pro-democracy icon Aung San Sui Kyi's time "had come and gone," an Indian officer told a United States diplomat in 2004 that democracy in Myanmar could be encouraged only through greater engagement with the ruling military regime.
Bangladesh today termed as "surprising" Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's comments questioning the state of origin of her country's Muslim Rohingya community.
08.08.08 may be a red-letter day for China, but for Myanmar 8-8-88 is a day they would like to forget. The day China begins its Olympics journey with a bang, Myanmar quietly remembers its perished victims 20 years ago on the same day.
She may have been unhappy with India for engaging with Myanmar's military junta but pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday said she has no "misgivings" in this regard as "allowances" have to be made for "friends" even if they go "astray" at times.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi has been criticised for failing to do enough to prevent the violence.
Ahead of the Singh-Suu Kyi meeting in Yangon which will see the pro-democracy icon sticking to protocol and calling on the Indian premier, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said that "Suu Kyi is one of the important leaders of Myanmar and it's natural for the prime minister to receive her with due courtesy and convey our best wishes for a national reconciliation for a democratic process to blossom in this country".
Wrapping up a historic three-day visit to Myanmar, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday for the second time, this time for a more formal meeting.
The pro-democracy Burmese activists and human rights groups on Saturday expressed concern over the safety and security of Aung San Suu Kyi who was released from house arrest by Myanmar's military government.
Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is India on a six-day visit, will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday.
