What Makes Their Relations Tick?

Published date01 January 2024
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1177/00208817241228368
AuthorJohn Thanglalsang Guite
Date01 January 2024
https://doi.org/10.1177/00208817241228368
International Studies
61(1) 109 –116, 2024
© 2024 Jawaharlal Nehru University
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DOI: 10.1177/00208817241228368
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Commentary
What Makes Their
Relations Tick?
John Thanglalsang Guite1
Abstract
India and Myanmar have not always enjoyed a comfortable relation with each other
ever since their independence from colonial rule. When the Burmese military
suppresses the voice of civil rights movements within its sovereign territory,
India, as its democratic neighbour, voices concern through verbal actions and
nothing more and when non-state actors from the Northeast Indian states act
against established Indian authorities on Indian soil, New Delhi talks tough with
Myanmar, such that insurgents from Northeast India seeks asylum in Myanmar,
and when India accuses Myanmar of such accusations and misunderstandings
tend to occur, where both countries blame each other for their problems,
not to mention the maelstrom of problems related to drug flow, illegal human
migration, and illegal trade that occurs between the porous borders of both
these sovereign Asian countries. Amidst such problems and misconceptions in
their relations of the past and also the present, what are the factors that keep a
thaw in their relations?
Keywords
Counterinsurgency, culture and history, diplomacy, economic relations, international
politics, race and ethnicity
Background
Myanmar for decades has been ruled by a ruthless military junta called the
‘Tatmadaw’ and has had a serious record of grave human rights violations in the
country for decades, keeping opposition members behind bars, including the
Nobel Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, in the last few decades.
The military coup of 2021 was the result of the follow-up of events from 2015,
when the country held its nationwide multiparty elections, and it was in this
1Centre for International Politics, Organization and Disarmament, School of International Studies,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
Corresponding author:
John Thanglalsang Guite, Centre for International Politics, Organization and Disarmament, School
of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 11067, India.
E-mail: john.guite89@gmail.com

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