Myanmar’s Foreign Policy Towards India From 1948 To Present

Myanmar geography made India be a friend of Myanmar because the western political frontier line of Myanmar is connected with India.In 1948,Myanmar and India’s relation was close and pleasant despite differences in some internal and international issues.It might be assumed that there was personally very close relationship between U Nu and Nehru and adherence to the same policy of non-alignment.Thus,the two countries had convergent views on most of the foreign policy issues.At that time,Myanmar government emphasized self-reliance but had no willingness to play an active role in international affairs.Therefore,it declined the country’s friendly relations with other countries,including India,to the least.Moreover,no serious issue which could affect the relations between Myanmar and India arose.Thus the relation between them was normal but not so close.Myanmar government abandoned its neutralism and made political and economic alignment with China because of pressure and sanctions from the international community,especially from the West.India changed its policy towards Myanmar later.Therefore,this study analyzes to investigate Myanmar’s Foreign Policy towards India from 1948(after independence)to present,mentions finding the supporting factors for the Foreign Policy between the two countries,and to elevate areas of cooperation with India to Myanmar’s Foreign Policy.In the end,it concludes with the challenges facing promoting Myanmar’s Foreign Policy towards India.Therefore,to get the required information,I used the qualitative research method by analyzing the data from the available books,journals,articles,and online resources.It highlighted that Myanmar adopted the four basic principles:non-alignment,isolationism,neutralism,and panchsheel with India for promoting fruitful bilateral relations.For promoting Myanmar Foreign Policy towards India,mutual importance between the two countries,the five drivers and the Chinese factor,also play an important role.Myanmar cooperates mainly in the areas of trade-political,strategic investment,and security with India.In promoting the Myanmar Foreign Policy towards India,it was found the political challenges,physical linkage challenges,and security challenges.Therefore we can say that Myanmar’s foreign policy towards India has an influence to some extent for the bilateral relation.