Myanmar's prolonged military rule poses multidimensional challenges for India's Act East Policy and border security. Analyse India's options.

Myanmar — the only ASEAN state sharing a land border with India (1,643 km, touching Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh) [3] — is India's land bridge to Southeast Asia. Since the February 2021 coup, the State Administration Council's consolidation, the unimplemented ASEAN Five-Point Consensus and an intensifying civil war have turned that bridge into a liability, forcing India into a difficult balance between values and interests.

Challenges to the Act East Policy

• Connectivity paralysis: the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project (Sittwe–Paletwa–Zorinpui) and the India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway pass through contested Rakhine, Chin and Sagaing territory, stalling India's flagship links to ASEAN [4].
• Strategic displacement: with Western sanctions isolating the junta, China has deepened its patronage of both the SAC and ethnic armed organisations, narrowing India's space.
• Diplomatic dilemma: ASEAN's non-interference principle (Charter Article 2) blunts collective pressure [2], leaving India without a multilateral cover for its own engagement.

Challenges to border security

• Territorial fragmentation: EAOs and the People's Defence Force now control stretches abutting India, so New Delhi must deal with non-state actors, not only Naypyidaw.
• Humanitarian spillover: about 2.8 million internally displaced within Myanmar drives refugee inflows into Mizoram and Manipur [1], straining state administrations under the Foreigners Act, 1946 with no dedicated asylum law.
• Insurgency and trafficking: porous terrain aids northeastern insurgent sanctuaries, arms and narcotics flows — prompting scrapping of the Free Movement Regime and fencing of the full border [3].

India's options

• Sustain pragmatic dual-track engagement — working-level contact with the SAC for border management, alongside quiet outreach to EAOs and civil society.
• Push ASEAN-centrality: back the Five-Point Consensus rather than a unilateral posture.
• Secure connectivity through project-specific local arrangements; pair fencing with regulated border-pass trade so kinship ties are not severed.
• Frame a humane, calibrated refugee protocol in consultation with border states.

India's leverage lies in patience and proximity. A neighbourhood-first approach that keeps channels open with every stakeholder, protects development corridors and treats refugees with dignity will best serve both Act East ambitions and a peaceful, democratic Myanmar.