US must change course with Myanmar

Myanmar needs help. After more than four years of brutal civil war, the country has been hit by a 7.7-magnitude earthquake, the strongest it has suffered since 1946. The resulting humanitarian crisis is dire, and continues to escalate, but despite an extraordinary appeal for international aid from Myanmar's military ruler, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the US has largely failed to deliver.

- Brahma Chellaney

To be sure, President Donald Trump has said that the US is “going to be helping” with the crisis response. But while China, India, and Russia moved swiftly to provide emergency relief, including deploying rescuers and medical teams, the US has fallen far short. The Trump administration’s gutting of foreign-assistance programmes — including mass firings and contract terminations at USAID — is one reason why. A more important reason is that stringent US sanctions against Myanmar remain in place.

Even before the USAID cuts, the US was poorly positioned to deliver emergency aid to Myanmar. Since the military's overthrow of a civilian government in February 2021, the US has taken a punitive approach to Myanmar. Mr Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden, implemented increasingly harsh sanctions while providing “non-lethal” military aid to rebels seeking to overthrow the junta — policies that the Trump administration has so far upheld.