Myanmar’s Investment and Foreign Economic Relations Minister Kan Zaw attended the ninth Global Business Summit in India over the weekend amid growing support from New Delhi for the junta.
Kan Zaw, who is also the chairman of the Central Working Committee for Myanmar Special Economic Zones, was a panelist at a discussion titled “Global Cooperation in a Polarized World” together with his counterparts from Albania and Sri Lanka.
Junta media said Kan Zaw elaborated on the junta’s attempts to attract foreign investment to Myanmar.
The summit was attended by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cabinet members, international representatives, policymakers, and industry pioneers from over 20 countries, totaling more than 2,000 participants.
Deputy Commerce Minister Min Min Oo, who accompanied Kan Zaw, met with Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Jitin Prasada to discuss the resumption of Myanmar-India border trade, according to India Shipping News.
Trade across their 1,600 km border has come to a virtual standstill as most border trade gates are controlled by revolutionary forces on the Myanmar side. But the two governments reportedly agreed on the importance of resuming it if they can.
On their return, Kan Zaw and Min Min met with Indian Ambassador to Myanmar Abhay Thakur in Yangon to discuss promoting “closer business dialogue.”
While Kan Zaw was away, Thakur visited Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State bordering India’s Arunachal Pradesh Province. There he met with junta-appointed Kachin State Chief Minister Khet Htein Nan, local business owners, and stakeholders.
His visit to seek economic cooperation with landlocked Arunachal Pradesh came after the India-funded Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit and Transport Corridor project in Rakhine stalled.
In January, Thakur visited Rakhine’s Sittwe, where he reviewed progress on the port, which is part of the Kaladan project aiming to connect it two ways to India—across the sea to Kolkata and overland to Aizawl in Mizoram.
The corridor is a crucial plank of India’s Act East Policy.
Thakur met the junta-appointed Rakhine State chief minister, Htein Lin, to highlight the port’s role in boosting coastal, regional, and international connectivity as well as tourism.
But the project has been in limbo as the ethnic Arakan Army (AA) captured 14 of 17 townships in Rakhine as well as Paletwa Township in neighboring Chin State, which forms a stop on the Kaladan overland route, though Sittwe remains in junta hands for now.
India is one of the few arms suppliers to the regime and has also expressed support for its proposed sham elections.
Recently the junta sought India’s help to electrify government offices with solar power.
Influential Indian spiritual figure Gurudev “Sri Sri” Ravi Shankar has also offered to help junta boss Min Aung Hlaing to restore peace and stability in the country.
