U. Myint Thant, chairman of the Yangon Heritage Trust, spoke in an interview about the state of democracy in Myanmar, the involvement of different stakeholders in its affairs and the difference between Indian and Chinese engagement with the resource-rich country. Myint Thant, author of Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia, explained the challenges facing the country, Myanmar’s perception of foreign firms, growing inequality and the importance of India’s North-East in the scheme of things. The Harvard and Cambridge educated writer also rued the lack of a direct flight between Yangon and New Delhi. Edited excerpts:

How has the Indian government’s engagement with Myanmar been? In many ways, the strengthening of relations between India and Myanmar, even under the old military government, had many positive aspects because it did prevent a situation where the country became extremely isolated. Under Western sanctions, it was already isolated from the West, but I think to be isolated from the neighbourhood as well wouldn’t have been a good thing for the country. I think we have to make some distinctions here. Diplomatically, the reason China was so important and countries like the US and the UK would have been more important is because of their membership of the UN Security Council. more…