Aung Hlaing visits India for defence trade talks

Myanmar President U Min Aung Hlaing arrived in India on Saturday for a five-day visit focused on strengthening bilateral cooperation in trade, connectivity, border security and defence. He landed in Gaya first to visit the Mahabodhi temple, a key spiritual site for Buddhists, before heading to New Delhi later in the evening.

The trip comes less than two months after Aung Hlaing became president following Myanmar’s parliamentary elections, which were held in December and January. Those elections took place after years of protests against the military junta that seized power in a February 2021 coup, overthrowing the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. He had effectively run Myanmar for the last five years as the head of military rule.

India’s Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh attended Aung Hlaing’s inauguration last month. Now the Myanmar leader is in India with a high-level delegation that includes several cabinet ministers, senior officials and business leaders.

A visit with religious and diplomatic layers

At the airport in Bodh Gaya, Aung Hlaing was received by Bihar Governor Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd). External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal called the visit “a warm welcome” on social media, adding that it reflects “the strong spiritual, historical and people-to-people ties” between the two countries.

Myanmar shares a 1,640-kilometer border with India, running through several northeastern states including Nagaland and Manipur, both of which have faced militant insurgencies. Border security is likely a top agenda item.

Talks with Modi and business outreach

Aung Hlaing is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 1 for discussions on further strengthening civilisational ties. He will also take part in a business forum. On June 2, the Myanmar president will travel to Mumbai for industry interactions and site visits.

He had earlier been invited to New Delhi for the International Big Cat Alliance Summit, which has been deferred. The timing of the visit was adjusted to accommodate that change.

Jaiswal said at a weekly media briefing that all issues within the scope of India-Myanmar relations — including border security and connectivity — will come up for discussion. “Our idea is to take our friendly, civilisational ties forward,” he said.

Defence and trade at the center

People familiar with the visit said defence and trade cooperation will be a major focus. Myanmar lies at the confluence of India’s three key foreign policy frameworks: the Neighbourhood First policy, the Act East policy, and the MAHASAGAR vision.

MAHASAGAR — which stands for “Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions” — was announced by PM Modi during his visit to Mauritius in March 2025. The policy aims to guide India’s engagement with the Global South.

A skeptical note on legitimacy

India’s willingness to host Aung Hlaing despite the military’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters and its continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi has drawn criticism from human rights groups. The December-January elections were widely viewed as a rubber-stamp exercise designed to legitimize junta rule, and several opposition parties boycotted them. India has largely avoided public condemnation of the coup, prioritizing strategic and border stability over democratic norms.

His visit underscores that calculus — though the Myanmar military’s grip on the country remains fragile. Armed resistance movements, including several ethnic armed organizations, control large parts of Myanmar’s borderlands, including areas near India’s northeastern states. That makes any security cooperation tricky: India is both a partner for the junta and a neighbor that must manage refugee flows and cross-border insurgency links.

The Burmese leader’s itinerary also includes a stop at the Mahabodhi temple, a site already familiar to many Myanmar Buddhist pilgrims. That religious dimension is part of India’s broader effort to maintain cultural ties while managing a complicated political relationship.

No final statement from either side is expected until after the June 1 meetings. The business forum in Mumbai will likely produce some memorandums of understanding, though the details remain unclear.