Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: A defence cooperation dialogue between India and Myanmar slated for October 7 in Guwahati will focus on the porous India-Myanmar border, cross-border movement of insurgent groups, narcotic trafficking, arms smuggling and capacity building between the two countries.
According to sources, Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh will lead the Indian side in the talks with a defence delegation from Myanmar. India and Myanmar share a 1,643-km landed porous border that lets drug smuggling, gunrunning, and infiltration of refugees from Myanmar. The current civil conflicts in Myanmar have led to a heavy influx of 'blackmarketed' weapons, narcotics and refugee waves in the border states of India like Manipur and Mizoram. Of late, India has discarded the previous free-movement region status between the borders of India and Myanmar and decided to aggressively push to fully fence the border within 2028.
According to sources, insurgent groups from the Northeast, like ULFA-I, NSCN-IM, PAL, UNLF, and others, have been using the areas as their safe zones where armed operatives of Myanmar have their dominance. From those Myanmar areas, the Northeast insurgents have been carrying out subversive activities in Assam and other states in the region in a hit-and-run tactic.
As Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma said as often as not that drugs enter Assam via Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh from Myanmar, the proposed defence cooperation dialogue will have its emphasis on cross-border narcotic smuggling.
At the NEC's 73rd plenary session held on June 4 this year in Shillong, chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah, Manipur Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh was on record saying that 'the porous border has been exploited by drug traffickers, armed smugglers supplying weapons to non-state actors and groups involved in human trafficking and other illegal activities'. He appealed to the Union Home Ministry to fence India-Myanmar.
In July this year, India and Myanmar held a high-level meeting in New Delhi, where Myanmar assured India that it would not allow any groups to use its territory for activities against India's security interests.
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