India For Continued Engagement With Myanmar Ahead Of PM Modi's Manila Visit

India has reiterated that isolating Myanmar is not the answer, just days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to travel to Manila for the ASEAN-India Summit and the East Asia Summit. 

Myanmar's civil war, now in its sixth year, is testing India and the ASEAN bloc.

"On Myanmar, our position has been very clear. If we isolate Myanmar, it is not the correct approach because someone else will fill that vacuum. "There is no alternative to engagement," said Rudrendra Tandon, Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs here on Thursday. 

"We strongly support ASEAN engagement with Myanmar. Myanmar is a country with a complex society. "It is crucial to be patient and to engage with Myanmar," he added.

The comments come as Myanmar's position in the region is changing. The junta's leaders have been banned from attending ASEAN leaders' summits since the military seized power in February 2021, igniting a civil war, and this has become the defining feature of the bloc's response to Naypyidaw.

That isolation now seems to be fading. An official visit earlier this year to New Delhi by former armed forces chief Min Aung Hlaing, now the elected president of Myanmar, was seen as an inflection point in India's ties with Myanmar's military leadership. Since April, the leaders of Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia have also received Myanmar's President.

The elections that brought the new government to power at the end of last year and early this year have resulted in the thaw. As ties improve, Naypyidaw has been demanding the restoration of its rights in ASEAN. The bloc's response to the crisis is still based on the five-point consensus it announced in 2022, which aims to pave the way for Myanmar's reintegration into the regional organisation.

PM Modi's Manila Visit

PM Modi will visit Manila on November 16-17 at the invitation of Philippines President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. He will attend the 23rd ASEAN-India Summit and the 21st East Asia Summit on November 17 in the Philippines as ASEAN Chair for 2026.

The ASEAN-India Summit will review the progress made in the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, including the ASEAN-India Plan of Action 2026-2030, and chart the future course of cooperation. The East Asia Summit will be an opportunity for leaders to exchange views with ASEAN and other participating countries on issues of regional and global importance.

India-ASEAN relations are a key pillar of India's Act East Policy and its Indo-Pacific vision, the Ministry of External Affairs said. The visit comes as the two sides are celebrating 2026 as the ASEAN-India Year of Maritime Cooperation. 2027 will be the 35th anniversary of Dialogue Relations and the fifth anniversary of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.