Will Suspending The Free Movement Regime With Myanmar Hurt Northeast?

At the onset of 2024, the Central government said it would suspend the Free Movement Regime (FMR) and fence the entire India-Myanmar international border.

This was not out of the blue, however. The demand to cancel the FMR came in the aftermath of the violence that broke out in Manipur in May 2023. The conflict that erupted between the Meiteis and the Kuki-Zo communities saw over 100 people killed, thousands displaced, and hundreds of houses and villages razed to ashes.

The mayhem has been attributed to “illegal immigrants” from Myanmar by the government and various CSOs in the Imphal valley, including the educated and intellectuals. Moreover, cross-border trafficking (arms and narcotics) has also been considered one of the main causes of the ongoing unrest in the state.

The Chief Minister told media persons that border fencing is a way to deal with the influx of “illegal immigrants” along the India-Myanmar border.

Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, Manipur state CM wrote, “Held a meeting with the officials of BRO and deliberated the plan to begin construction of an additional 70 km of border fencing along the Indo-Myanmar border. I was joined by the Chief Secretary, DGP, and officials from the Home Department. In view of the rise in illegal immigration and drug smuggling from neighboring countries, safeguarding our porous borders has become an urgent necessity.”

Biren Singh’s claims were backed by Union home minister Amit Shah in August 2023. During a discussion in a no-confidence motion in Parliament, Shah said the violence in Manipur had been triggered by an influx of Kukis from Myanmar into Manipur (India), which he said “created insecurities among the Meiteis.”

Shah had told Parliament that problems started with the Kuki refugees from neighbouring Myanmar after the military rulers there started a crackdown against militants in early 2021.

According to media reports, as of December 2023, around 6,000 Myanmar nationals are taking shelter in Manipur.

On the border fencing and suspension of the FMR, Khriezo Yhome, senior fellow at the Asian Confluence, Shillong, emphasised the need to understand the original idea, concept and the aim of the FMR. “We must re-visit the original FMR, the Act-East policy, and ask whether it is still relevant,” said Yhome. According to the senior researcher, both the state and the centre must ensure policies such as FMR are implemented without lapses.

Mentioning India’s “neighbourhood first policy,” where Myanmar is one of the priority countries, Yhome said, “Without a stable neighbour, our security or economy cannot be secure.”

India shares a 1,643 km-long border across four states, namely, Arunachal Pradesh (520 km), Nagaland (215 km), Manipur (398 km), and Mizoram (510 km), with Myanmar’s Kachin, Sagaing Region, and Chin State. It runs from the tripoint with China in the north to the tripoint with Bangladesh in the south.

The Assam Rifles of the Indian Army stand guard on the Indian side, while the Border Guard Force of the Tatmadaw guards the Myanmar side. The Indo-Myanmar border is an open border where communities living alongside the two countries cross each other.

According to Angshuman Choudhury, Associate Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, the “unfenced border is an asset rather than a liability,” which he said “is what makes the India-Myanmar border unique.”

Under the Free Movement Regime (FMR), agreed upon and implemented by both the Indian and Myanmar governments, it allows people living in villages along the border to go 16 km into each other’s territory without any documents or IDs. Scrapping FMR would mean visas would now be required for border movement.

The FMR was implemented in 2018 as part of the Central Government’s Act East policy. Among others, the objective was mainly to facilitate trans-border trade and social connections. To enable the inhabitants of the border villages to continue their cultural and social engagements and interactions.

It may be mentioned that communities living along the India-Myanmar border have family ties and are largely of the same ethnic stock, such as the Kuki-Zos and the Nagas.

In 2014, the Indian government re-christened the Look East Policy launched in 1992 to “Act East Policy” in an attempt to further push forward its regional influence in the Southeast Asian region.

With an aim to promote economic cooperation and strategic relationships with countries in the Indo-Pacific region, Act East Policy includes, among others, connectivity, trade, culture, defence, and people-to-people contact at bilateral, regional, and multilateral levels.

Significantly, the northeast India region as the gateway to the SEA region figures as a crucial and key component of the Act East Policy. Myanmar is the only ASEAN nation with which India shares both land and maritime borders and therefore is a “gateway” to Southeast Asia via the north-east Indian states. The policy also envisaged the development of NE states.

More than three decades into the policy, India’s northeast states have not experienced much of its impact. The region continues to fall behind in terms of economic development.

According to Amar Yumnam, Fellow at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies Hyderabad, the much-hyped “border trade” cannot be called a “trade” per-se. He stated that the “trade” that is happening along the Indo-Myanmar border is all “illegal activity.” He underlined that for a policy to be formulated, there is a need for a thorough understanding of ground reality.

In terms of trade, for instance, Moreh in Manipur, the key trading point, witnessed a lot of human activity. Myanmar traders come to Moreh in the early morning and go back in the evening. Many often stay back for a few days depending on their trade or social acquaintances, as many have relatives and acquaintances on either side. The same goes for Indian traders who go to Myanmar. Trade items include food and non-food commodities.

It is also visibly obvious that there are more incoming goods from Myanmar than outgoing from India. These can be witnessed in the markets across Manipur.

A brief by the Ministry of External Affairs stated that India-Myanmar trade stood at US$ 1.03 billion in 2021–22. India’s imports from Myanmar increased by 55%, and India’s exports to Myanmar witnessed an increase of 45% during 2021–22.

Moreh is the third busiest cross-border trade in the Northeast, with a volume of Rs134.37 crore during 1996-2001, as per a study by NEDFi.

Angshuman Choudhury agrees that the inflow of drugs and arms through the open border is a reality. Nevertheless, “that has little to do with the root causes of the current conflict,” noted Choudhury. “Fencing the border is nothing more than a narrow security solution that will do nothing to repair Manipur’s social consensus and ethnic fabric,” observed Choudhury. “It will only give the illusion of a resolution without any long-term outcome.”
In fact, human contact and trade along the India-Myanmar border have been happening since time immemorial. The people-people contact continued even after the colonial period.

India’s Act East Policy aims to increase influence in the Southeast Asian region. The policy aims to develop northeastern states while establishing deep cultural and social ties with the Southeast Asian region. Only the future will show if removing the FMR and border fencing fulfils the Act East Policy goals or defeats the purpose of getting Southeast Asia and Northeast India closer.

First published by East Mojo