NEW DELHI, June 1 — India gave a red-carpet welcome on today to Myanmar’s junta leader-turned President Min Aung Hlaing—his first trip abroad since becoming civilian leader—with talks focusing on security and trade.

The former military chief met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi today, where they shook hands outside New Delhi’s sprawling Hyderabad House.

Modi told the Myanmar leader that “India remains Myanmar’s trusted neighbour, a reliable partner and steadfast first responder in times of crisis”, Indian foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said.

Min Aung Hlaing was sworn in as Myanmar’s president in April, continuing his rule from a civilian post five years after snatching power in a military coup.

Modi also “reaffirmed India’s readiness to support peace and dialogue in Myanmar”, Jaiswal added.

New Delhi’s top career diplomat, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, told reporters after the meeting that discussions included border security and the impact of the civil war in Myanmar, which borders India’s northeastern states.

“Stability and peace in Myanmar is obviously a major interest for India,” Misri said.

“Not just for the security of the northeast and the safety and security of people living along the 1,643-kilometre (1,020-mile) long border that we have with them, but also for our interests—such as connectivity to Southeast Asia,” he said.

But he also stressed that any solution to the conflict in Myanmar would have to come from its citizens themselves.

Cybercrime 

“Eventually, the difficulties that face Myanmar will have to be sorted out by the people of Myanmar talking amongst themselves,” he said.

“This will have to be a Myanmar-led solution and a Myanmar-owned solution.”

India has long supported plans for infrastructure initiatives to link India’s landlocked northeast to the Bay of Bengal through Myanmar, as well as a highway to Thailand—routes that cut through areas of conflict.

“Obviously, in these circumstances, it’s a little difficult to meet preset targets and dates,” he said.

Bilateral trade was more than US$2 billion in 2025-2026, according to New Delhi.

India also discussed cybercrime, and Misri said that New Delhi had repatriated more than 2,400 Indians from cyberscam centres in Myanmar in the past year, with around 150 “still stuck” in the country.

“Our engagement with Myanmar is not intended to be a commentary on the internal political arrangements in that country,” he said.

“We have always proceeded on the principle that sustained dialogue is what is important and what is an imperative for India as a neighbour,” he added.

“Disengagement only produces a vacuum that others go on to fill, to our detriment—and those others have no interest in democracy, I can assure you about that,” he said, without giving further details.

Min Aung Hlaing arrived in India on Saturday, first stopping in the eastern state of Bihar, with a visit to the Buddhist pilgrimage site of Bodh Gaya—where believers say that the Buddha attained enlightenment.

He is expected to hold talks with business representatives during his five-day visit and will travel to the financial hub Mumbai. — AFP

Myanmar’s coup-commander turned President Min Aung Hlaing touched down in China on Monday for talks with Xi Jinping, his first visit since taking over as civilian leader after Beijing-backed elections rejected by democracy monitors.

Min Aung Hlaing is hoping to expand trade and security ties with China, a rare enduring partner for Myanmar after his 2021 coup ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and diplomatically isolated the country on the world stage.

Relations have frayed in recent years over mushrooming internet scam centres along the countries’ shared border areas which both enlist and target Chinese citizens in lucrative cryptocurrency fraud, analysts say.

China has emerged as a key power-broker in the civil war sparked by the coup — variously backing the military, rebels and truces between them according to its security and economic interests, analysts say.

The one-party state also vocally backed recent polls excluding Suu Kyi’s party, punishing dissent with prison time and returning a walk-over win for pro-military MPs — who elected Min Aung Hlaing as president.

Democracy watchdogs described the transition as a charade to launder the reputation of the leadership, campaigning to recover from the pariah status many nations branded it with since the putsch.

Min Aung Hlaing landed in China to a red carpet welcome, according to images shared by his office, and spent the first hours of his five-day trip touring Beijing Aerospace City — the centre of China’s space programme.

Supply and demand

During his half-decade ruling Myanmar as military chief, Min Aung Hlaing made trips to China only for regional summits — meeting Beijing officials on the sidelines.

China hopes his first visit as civilian president will deepen “comprehensive strategic cooperation”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Friday.

In addition to Xi, Min Aung Hlaing is also set to meet Chinese Premier Li Qiang and top legislator Zhao Leji.

Beijing is a key provider of materiel to the Myanmar military and has also brokered a pair of landmark truces with two of the most powerful rebel factions that once challenged it in the borderlands with China.

While Myanmar has been massively impoverished by the civil war, it has also emerged as a major global supplier of mined rare earth minerals — vital for China’s production of renewable energy technology.

The first bill announced by Myanmar’s new crop of lawmakers proposes the death penalty for those who detain or violently coerce victims into working in scam centres, signalling the country’s intention to crack down.

Attention has also been drawn to the bilateral relationship between Myanmar and China by Beijing’s detention of a US scholar who studies Myanmar and stands accused of spying.

Min Zin, founder of the Institute for Strategy and Policy Myanmar (ISP-M), “has been subjected to criminal compulsory measures”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin told reporters on Friday.

Authorities are holding him “on suspicion of engaging in espionage activities that endanger China’s national security”, Lin said.

Min Zin was detained in the capital of China’s border province of Yunnan, a person with professional ties to the ISP-M told AFP anonymously because of the case’s sensitivity.

BANGKOK, June 13 — An American businessman who wrote a book about living through a military coup in Myanmar was detained on his return to the South-east Asian nation on Thursday, according to two people briefed on the matter.

Adam Castillo, a former head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar who is based in Yangon where he runs a security firm, was stopped at an airport after travelling to the country, one of the people said.

A US State Department spokesperson said it was aware of reports of the detention of an American in Myanmar but had no further comment due to privacy concerns.

A spokesperson for the military-backed government told Reuters they had not received any information about the matter and had no comment.

Castillo had been abroad promoting his book, Finding Our Voice, about staying in Myanmar following the 2021 coup that threw the country into turmoil, according to social media posts.

The military’s power grab ended a brief experiment in democratic rule under Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, and sparked a civil war between the army and a coalition of pro-democracy armed resistance forces allied to long-established ethnic minority groups.

In early April, former junta chief Min Aung Hlaing was sworn in as the country’s president, following a widely criticised, military-engineered election that excluded the main opposition groups, including Suu Kyi’s political party, and was conducted in the throes of conflict.

Castillo, a former US Marine, last year visited the White House and suggested to officials that the United States play a peace-broker role with a view to accessing rare earth minerals, Reuters reported.

His book chronicles the military’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters but also criticises Washington’s policy, including sanctions, as ineffective and advocates for more business engagement. — Reuters