Indian media has reported that Myanmar regime leader Min Aung Hlaing is scheduled to visit India’s Bodh Gaya and the capital, New Delhi, either on May 31 or during the first week of June. Neither the military regime in Naypyidaw nor the Embassy of India in Myanmar has officially confirmed the impending visit.
This trip would mark Min Aung Hlaing’s first foreign visit since he was inaugurated as Myanmar’s president by a pro-military parliament on April 10, following widely condemned “sham” elections that concluded on January 25.
Strategic agendas: Border security and infrastructure
Salai Dokhar, the founder of the civil society group India for Myanmar, told DVB that Min Aung Hlaing’s trip is likely driven by two major priorities:
- Border Security: Addressing the escalating instability along the porous borders shared by the two countries.
- The IMTT Highway Project: Reviving talks on the stalled India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral (IMTT) Highway. The 870-mile (1,400 km) project, designed to link Moreh in India’s Manipur State with Mae Sot in Thailand via Myanmar, was approximately 70 per cent complete by July 2023 but has been halted by the ongoing conflict.
Protests and resistance backlash
The planned visit has already sparked significant backlash. India for Myanmar announced on May 27 that its members, alongside the broader Myanmar diaspora in New Delhi, plan to protest against Min Aung Hlaing during his visit.
Nay Phone Latt, a spokesperson for the National Unity Government (NUG)—which represents the lawmakers and leaders ousted during the February 2021 coup—strongly condemned the diplomatic engagement.
He told DVB that any country communicating or cooperating with Min Aung Hlaing’s new pro-military administration is “opposing the people of Myanmar.”
The stranglehold on border trade
The situation along the border remains deeply volatile. India shares a massive border with Myanmar’s Chin State and Sagaing Region, spanning Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, and Nagaland.
Naung Yoe, a former soldier who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), warned that Min Aung Hlaing may use the trip to pressure New Delhi into blocking unofficial border trade between Mizoram and Myanmar’s Chin State—specifically via Rikhawdar town, which has been under Chin resistance control since 2023.
Since November 2023, the military has blockaded all land and sea routes into the region following a statewide offensive launched by the Arakan Army (AA).
Consequently, residents in resistance-controlled areas of Chin State and AA-controlled territories of Paletwa Township and 14 townships in neighbouring Arakan State heavily rely on this unofficial trade with Mizoram for basic food and life-saving medicine.
International scrutiny and political prisoners
The impending visit coincides with renewed international pressure on the regime. Just days prior, on May 26, the Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting in New Delhi—comprising representatives from India, the U.S., Japan, and Australia—issued a joint call for an immediate end to violence against civilians and the release of political prisoners in Myanmar.
Min Aung Hlaing orchestrated the 2021 coup that plunged the country into crisis, jailing State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint.
While Win Myint was released during a mass amnesty on April 17, Aung San Suu Kyi remains detained, serving an 18-year sentence.
Although the regime claimed she was transferred to house arrest in Naypyidaw on April 30, no verifiable evidence of her current location or condition has been provided.
