Myanmar, the Golden Land, has for ages been the last frontier, steeped in mysticism and mystery. However, knowledge about Myanmar remains woefully inadequate in most spheres including Indian academia, media and in some cases, even foreign policy. The irony is such that premier educational establishments in India provide exotic courses on countries with which India has no borders and are thousands of kilometres away, but do not offer Myanmar studies or language courses, despite India sharing a 1643 km border with Myanmar.

On 10 November, VIF organised a discussion on ‘Elections in Myanmar and India's Way Forward". Dr Arvind Gupta, Director VIF, welcomed the participants and delivered the opening remarks followed by brief presentations by Amb Gautam Mukhopadhya, Mr Sanjay Chadha, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, Mr K Yhome, Senior Fellow, Observer Research Foundation, and Mr Sanjay Pullpaka, Senior Fellow, Delhi Policy Group.

This paper attempts to analyse the trend of certain Western countries and the United Nations (UN) to impose or recommend imposition of sanctions on other countries, using Myanmar as a case study. Presently, certain bans have already been imposed or recommended to be imposed by Israel, United States and the UN on officials of Myanmar in the aftermath of the Rohingya Crisis. But this paper is not about Rohingyas and human rights violations. As such, the paper neither concurs nor dispels the allegations made against the Myanmar Government.

A four member delegation from top think tanks of Myanmar discussed various issues under bilateral as well as regional ambit. Bilateral discussions ranged from social, economic and security issues, India’s ‘neighbours first’ policy, connectivity and development and Myanmar’s expectations of India’s support in greater developments in Myanmar and the Indo-Myanmar border regions. Ways for India to fulfil a greater role in regional development was also suggested.