Myanmar’s complex experiment with limited democracy (2011–21) was derailed by the military coup on 1 February 2021. A five-year-long nightmare, marked by violent internal conflicts, instability, and economic stagnation, followed. After the imperfect elections held between December 2025 and January 2026, a new government led by President Min Aung Hlaing assumed charge on 10 April 2026. Thus, yet another chapter opens in the nation’s vexed history at a time when the Resistance forces control a sizeable segment of territory and clashes between them and the Tatmadaw, the military, continue unabated. Will it be a new dawn bringing peace, stability, and development, or will the political divide persist?
Pondering over this conundrum, memories flood my mind about my three-decade-long association with a country with two names – Burma, which became Myanmar in 1989.
Arrival
It was a humid day in June 2002 when my ageing mother, wife, and I landed at Yangon airport, having travelled from Kolkata on an Indian Airlines flight. As the ambassador-designate, I was warmly received by protocol officials and embassy colleagues. I noticed that the VIP lounge was filled with people and was happy to discover that they all were ambassadors of their countries stationed in Yangon who had come to welcome the latest addition to the local diplomatic corps. A delightful but rare tradition, it heralded my joining a new family of fellow students of Myanmar affairs.
The drive from the airport gave us the first glimpse of the capital’s best-known landmark — the Shwedagon Pagoda. Upon arrival at India House, our home for the next three years, I was aware it ranked among the finest properties that the government of India had anywhere in the world. Designed in the Victorian style — oversized rooms, lofty ceilings, massive columns, and a large portico with a huge terrace — it took you back to the golden days of the British Raj. With its white colour glistening brilliantly in sunlight, the building was popularly known as the “White House of Yangon”. Months later, the German ambassador told me, “You know, every time we have guests from Germany, we bring them in our car to show them the India House from the outside.”
Two colours enjoyed special significance: olive green and orange. The first represented the Tatmadaw, which has ruled the country since independence, except for a little over a decade in the beginning. The orange symbolised Buddhism in a country with an overwhelming majority of Theravada adherents. Pretty pagodas, young monks in ochre robes going around in a neat line every morning for alms, and Buddhist rituals were a natural part of the local landscape. But we also found that the Burmese were adept at incorporating Hindu rituals and traditions of Nats (spirits) worship into their day-to-day life. Largely, people seemed at ease, despite underdevelopment and a precarious political situation.
Flashback
Earlier during the 1990s, I visited Myanmar at least on three occasions in my capacity as the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, handling relations with four neighbours — Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Myanmar, from 1991 to 1994. My first familiarisation tour made it clear how strained relations between Yangon and Delhi had become due to India’s full-fledged support for the failed democracy movement.
This triggered a policy review, which resulted in India adopting a new “Two-track” policy to build and sustain cooperative relations with the military government and to continue extending moral and political support to the cause of democracy while refraining from interference in the country’s internal affairs. Subsequent visits in the august company of Foreign Secretary J.N. Dixit and Home Secretary N.N. Vohra formed part of the government’s endeavours to implement the new policy. These efforts produced tangible results at the right time, paving the way for a substantial upgradation of the bilateral relationship.
The soundness and durability of the “Two-track” policy are now well established. It remains in operation after over 35 years. The latest visit by an Indian dignitary, Kirti Vardhan Singh, Minister of State for External Affairs, to Myanmar to attend the inauguration of the new president affirms this policy.
Ambassadorial Tenure
Serving as Ambassador from 2002 to 2005, I discovered a country at peace with itself, even though its security and political challenges were yet to be resolved on a lasting basis. Ethnic insurgencies persisted in the northern and eastern border regions. The struggle for democracy continued, with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi spending most of her years under house arrest. Senior General Than Shwe, Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), governed the country with a firm hand, ensuring stability and security, while limiting economic development and assuring the people that a new constitution was being prepared. Eventually, it emerged in 2008. The nation had to wait for another couple of years before general elections were held in November 2010. They cleared the way for a new governance model of shared authority between elected civilian leaders and the military from April 2011.
Meanwhile, our diplomatic efforts to strengthen India-Myanmar relations began to bear fruit. In my time, four ministerial visits contributed handsomely to this process, two from the NDA government (Arun Jaitley and Arun Shourie) and two from the UPA government (Mani Shankar Aiyar and Natwar Singh). This underlined bipartisan support in India and a widely shared perception of Myanmar’s importance. It has been a vital neighbour for us in terms of security and development in the Northeastern states, our Look/Act East Policy, and our geopolitical competition with China. Myanmar too, has been an active participant in this process due to its keenness to pursue an independent foreign policy and to keep its options open without being excessively dependent on a single power.
Two high points of my tenure were the visits to Myanmar by Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in November 2003 and the state visit to India by SPDC Chairman Than Shwe in October 2004. Shekhawat was the highest-level visit since Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s visit in 1987. Then Shwe’s visit took place after a 24-year lapse; General Ne Win visited India in November 1980. Shekhawat expressed satisfaction with “the multifaceted relationship”. His host, General Maung Aye, observed that Myanmar remained grateful for the cooperation extended by India in various domains.
The SPDC Chairman’s visit to India in 2004 was a milestone. The joint statement issued at the conclusion of the visit conveyed Myanmar’s willingness to help India address security challenges in the border region. On the other hand, it articulated India’s interest in a democratic Myanmar while clarifying that it was for Myanmar to bring in democracy. The private time I spent and the informal conversations I had with the Senior General, while accompanying him to Agra, Bangalore, and Kolkata, were illuminating about his personality and background as well as the peculiar way he related to and discovered India.
The Other Side
True to our calibrated policy, we kept in touch with the democracy camp, supporting and encouraging it as much as we could. Within weeks of my arrival in Yangon, I had an opportunity to meet Daw Suu Kyi at the residence of the US chargé d’affaires. Later, she was confined to spend much of her time under house arrest at her historic residence, No. 54–56, University Avenue, Yangon.
I was permitted to call on her there on 30 January 2003, a rare privilege. She gave me a cup of tea and her undivided attention. We discussed many aspects of the situation in Myanmar and its external relations, especially its ties with India. I mentioned the significance of the date and timing of our meeting, the precise hour when the people of India observed silence to remember the Father of the Nation. She remembered Tees, January, Marg in New Delhi, the road near which was located the official residence of her mother, who served as Burma’s Ambassador to India. Years later, I met her again when she was free, an MP, and on the way to securing power and becoming the State Counselor and de facto Premier.
Parting Thought
As I watched President Min Aung Hlaing deliver his inaugural address before the newly elected Parliament on 10 April on television, I wished him and the people of Myanmar well. My thoughts also went to the lady who lost her freedom again, on 1 February 2021, and has been in prison or under house arrest since then. She is 80 now and is reportedly ailing. There is little reason to believe that her popularity with her people has declined, although several political activists seem to think that the nation has moved on. The uncontestable fact is that she remains the best-known name and face of Myanmar.
When the military, the democracy camp, and the Resistance forces can find a modus vivendi for the benefit of their people, Myanmar will enter a new era of hope, stability, and progress, rejuvenating its great ASEAN family.
Rajiv Bhatia is the Distinguished Fellow for Foreign Policy Studies and a former ambassador.
This article was first published in India’s World, Volume 2 (Issue 5), May, 2026.