India Must Secure Its Myanmar Projects

Since December 2024, the Arakan Army (AA) has been entrenching itself in the Rakhine state after the fall of the Western Regional Military Command at Ann Township in central Rakhine.

- SMRUTI S PATTANAIK

As the military arm of the United League of Arakan (ULA), a Buddhist front, the AA's military victory is remarkable among the rebel groups fighting the Myanmar Army.

After taking control of Maungdaw township, the army was able to completely control Myanmar's 270-kilometer-long border with Bangladesh.

The presence of the army right next to the borders of Bangladesh and India posed new challenges. Both countries did not want the conflict to spill over across the border, especially Bangladesh, which is hosting nearly a million Rohingya refugees. Similarly, China, which has massively invested in a port in this region, is equally concerned about the future of its investment. The Chinese investment in Kyaukphyu port provides an outlet to the Indian Ocean, helping it overcome its Malacca dilemma.

The AA was founded by a former student activist, Twan Mrat Naing, in 2009, and has emerged as a dominant group in the current civil war. The army's capture of Paletwa in Chin state threatened India's strategic connectivity, which it seeks to establish between Paletwa and Zorinpui in Mizoram. This link is part of the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project (KMTTP).

For a long time, India has been working to connect its landlocked northeast to the nearest port, which has not been possible due to instability in Myanmar.

Mizoram remains a lynchpin of this connectivity project. It was not surprising that K Vanlalvena, a member of the Indian Parliament from the Mizo National Front, visited Paletwa, one of the westernmost towns of Myanmar, ostensibly to review the progress of KMTTP and met the army which controls that area. The 110km Paletwa-Zorinpui road link remains critical to India's connectivity to the North East using Sittwe Port.