Today, I will reply for the questions raised by the media regarding India and Myanmar border area Manipur and Kabaw Valley, and the matters that the Mizoram MPs talked about.

The Hindu News Agency stated on its website that Mizoram MP K. Vanlalvena visited the regions in north-west of Myanmar bordering with India.

It said K. Vanalvena visited Myanmar passing through border areas from Mizoram.

The governor of Mizoram and the border guard forces were informed regarding this visit, The Hindu News Agency said.

Then, we also found that he met with CNF, CNA and Chin PDF. Moreover, regarding the India-Myanmar border areas, Tamu-Kabaw Valley, an MP of Manipur said these areas are likely to be territory of India according to the history at the meeting of Upper House of India.

Moreover, on 10 March, Prime Minister of Mizoram Lalduhoma talked about the arrivals of foreigners to Myanmar via Mizoram at Mizoram Hluttaw.

We also found that The Times of India stated that nearly 2,000 foreigners visited Aizawl between June and December last year, they were never seen in the streets, and their main intention was to cross into Myanmar to interfere in its internal affairs.

Regarding with these cases, what I want to reply to the media is that Myanmar and India are good friendly nations.

Myanmar has been cooperating with India under the Act East Policy.

As previously said, the Myanmar government does not allow groups opposing Myanmar using Indian territory, nor does not accept the groups opposing the India government with the use of Myanmar's territory.

The two countries have bilateral cooperation for border security of two countries.

 The Indian government has already known that there have been many successful achievements in this collaboration.

Myanmar continues to hold the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence as usual like India.

It stands as good friend.

In regard with Myanmar-India border area, the Myanmar-India border stretches over 1,010 miles. It is 1,626 kilometres.

Over 907 miles were measured, over 1,460 in kilometres.

Most of them have been measured already.

The Kabaw Valley were also finished measuring.

For the Myanmar-India border demarcation, there is MoU on Border Cooperation between Myanmar and India made on 8 May 2014. When it comes to say Kabaw Valley, in 2013, the opposition party of India BJP campaigned with a promise to reclaim the Kabaw Valley comprising of Tamu-Kalay- Mingin townships.

The locals opposed in Kalay and Mingin townships.

 Therefore, what I want to say is that Myanmar is always a good neighbour of India. Some of the politicians in India should not jeopardize bilateral relations between the two countries solely for their own political ambitions.

They should respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Myanmar will continue to do what it should be informed and said regarding this issue.

Thank you all.

Source: https://myawady.net.mm/

The United States has disclosed that it has been holding direct talks with the Islamist group Hamas over the release of US hostages detained in the Gaza Strip. This is a highly unusual move as Washington regards Hamas as a terrorist organization. US news site Axios and other media outlets on Wednesday quoted sources as saying that Adam Boehler, serving as US envoy for hostage affairs, held meetings with Hamas officials in recent weeks in Doha.

Five US nationals are believed to be still detained in Gaza. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed in a news conference that talks are ongoing.

She went on to say that dialogue and talks with people around the world is a good faith effort by Trump to do what is right for the American people.

The US has long avoided direct negotiations with Hamas, which it designated as a terrorist organization in 1997.

Hamas also told Middle Eastern media that talks had been held with Boehler. It said the request to hold talks came from the US side.

Source: NHK World

US President Donald Trump said his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, plans to travel to Washington later this week to sign a minerals deal.

Zelenskyy is reportedly planning to meet Trump in the White House on Friday after officials agreed on the terms of the draft deal. The US aims to jointly develop Ukraine's mineral resources.

Ukraine has previously stated that it seeks security guarantees from the US as part of the deal.

According to a senior Ukrainian official who spoke to the AFP news agency, while the draft mentions "security," it does not specify the US role.

However, Trump mentioned that "some form" of peacekeeping troops will be necessary for Ukraine.

Source: DW

After lengthy negotiations, Ukraine has agreed on the terms of a minerals deal with the US, the Financial Times newspaper, Reuters, and AFP news agency reported, citing unnamed officials. 

The Trump administration had been pushing Kyiv towards an agreement on the deal, which has been a source of tension between Kyiv and Washington as Trump pursues bilateral talks with Russia on ending the war. 

Bloomberg News reported that the Ukrainian Cabinet on Wednesday is expected to recommend the deal be signed.

Ukraine's Ukrainska Pravda news website, citing a copy of the agreement dated February 24, said the deal "lacked security guarantees" for Ukraine.

A Ukrainian official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the US had dropped unfavorable clauses in the deal, and that "government officials were working on the details." 

The official said the removed clauses included the demand that Ukraine provide $500 billion worth of resources.

The deal could be officially signed in Washington on Friday, the official added.

Source: DW

February 25, 2025 

MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Russia's President Vladimir Putin offered the U.S. the opportunity for joint exploration of the country's rare earth metals deposits, as well as the supply of aluminum to the U.S. domestic market, outlining a future economic deal between the two countries.

U.S. President Donald Trump earlier said that "major economic development transactions with Russia" would take place. Within two hours of Trump's statement, Putin chaired a meeting with his ministers and economic advisers on rare earth metals.

"We, by the way, would be ready to offer our American partners, and when I say 'partners,' I mean not only administrative and governmental structures but also companies, if they showed interest in joint work," Putin said on state TV after the meeting.

"We undoubtedly have, I want to emphasize, significantly more resources of this kind than Ukraine," Putin added. He mentioned that a potential U.S.-Ukraine deal involving rare earth metals is not a concern for Russia.

He noted that Russian companies could supply up to 2 million tonnes of aluminum to the U.S. market annually if the U.S. market reopens. Russia used to provide around 15% of U.S. aluminum imports before prohibitive duties were introduced in 2023.

Putin suggested that Russia and the U.S. could work jointly on hydropower generation and aluminum production in Russia's Krasnoyarsk region in Siberia, which is the home base for Russia's largest aluminum maker, Rusal.

In a transcript posted by the Kremlin, Putin said rare earths were a priority sector for Russia's economic development and competitiveness.

Putin said the government sought to "boost the potential of the domestic industry" extending from extraction to "manufacture of ready-made high-technology goods."

"Based on the results of the national project, the volume of output of such goods should increase several times over," he said.

Source: asia.nikkei.com   

23 Feb, 2025

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has expressed his readiness to “exchange” his position for NATO membership and step down if it is necessary to achieve peace in Ukraine.

Speaking at the ‘Ukraine. Year 2025’ forum in Kiev on Saturday, Zelensky said he does not intend to remain in power for many years. 

Zelensky confirmed he received the proposed deal, introduced by Washington after the first draft was shot down by Kiev, which involves a sum of $500 billion.

“It became clear that we are talking about a debt, that this is not an investment... If this money goes to the fund, and nothing comes from abroad, then we are paying off the debt,” Zelensky stated.

“We had 100 [billion]. I am not ready to pay off 500 [billion]. And I am not even ready to fix it at the 100 [billion mark], because I will not recognize grants as debts. We should not pay off the debt,” he added.

Paying off amounts such as this would put ten generations of Ukrainians in debt, which means the deal is completely unacceptable, Zelensky said.

Zelensky’s presidential term expired in May 2024; critics have accused the Ukrainian leader of seeking to prolong the hostility in order to cling on power. Moscow has said it does not regard him as a legitimate representative of the country and that he lacks the power to sign any comprehensive peace deal. This week, Trump pointed to Zelensky’s shaky legal position as well, branding him a “dictator without elections” and claiming that he currently has an extremely low approval rating in his country.

ကိုးကား- RT

Photo: RNZ

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) 

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Tuesday that China and the United States should find the right way to get along.

China and the United States should follow the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, and find the right way for the two major countries to get along well with each other, said Wang during a conversation with representatives of American society on the sidelines of a UN Security Council high-level meeting in New York.

Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, noted that China and the United States have vast common interests and there is broad space for cooperation.

The two sides should earnestly respect each other's core interests, strengthen communication, build trust, fend off distraction and overcome obstacles so that China-U.S. relations can be improved and stabilized, said Wang. 

Source: Xinhua

U Ko Ko Gyi, Chairperson of the People's Party said that recent agreements made by the working group of political parties and the National Solidarity and Peacemaking Negotiation Committee (NSPNC) will pave the way for a democratic federal union in the future. 

"The agreement to officially amend and enact the term 'federal' in the Constitution through discussions with the NSPNC is significant. It will allow the respective Chief Ministers of states and regions to be elected by their respective parliaments. Additionally, for ethnic minorities, the administrators at the district level will be appointed through elections by the local people. Therefore, it represents a form of self-governance," said U Ko Ko Gyi. 

Although U Ko Ko Gyi returned with enthusiasm to announce the agreements made through discussions, including the formation of a federal union based on democracy and the federal system, he expressed dissatisfaction with misleading reports from foreign news agencies. 

He said, “When good news for the people is being shared, unexpectedly, foreign media outlets distort the entire image of our discussions' outcomes. It’s disappointing. We had requested these facts to discuss in advance. The agreements we reached has been signed. But those do not include the facts mentioned by foreign media. Additionally, there was no representation speaking on behalf of the working group. This is unrelated to the political party group and does not reflect the NSPNC's agreements.”

Source: NP News 

Or, between a rock and a hard place; an idiom that means to be in a difficult situation where you have to choose between two equally unpleasant or inconvenient options. What could possibly reflect such a circumstance in Myanmar, especially politically?

Long before your time, in a country called Myanmar, there were elections. The popular leader who was somehow expected to win cheated in these elections. That is the most important fact (verifiable) that the West has to acknowledge. The cheating was so rampant that Myanmar has overtaken Japan in terms of population over the age of 100, in terms of number of centenarians voted. Myanmar became the country with the best healthcare in the world (despite consistently ranked among the lowest in the world, in fact, according to WHO). The elections fraud was so widespread that the total number of votes counted exceeded the eligible votes by 50% (33 million vs 22 million). Still many refused to believe provable stats and decided to follow the incorrect analogies and fake news.

Yet hind side is 20:20. We could have gotten international auditors or third parties to verify the frauds. We could have conducted press conferences in English and invited international journalists. We could have predicted that the easily gullible population and Facebook would turn the country into a mess. Well, past is in the past now.
After much back and forth, both China and India saw the truth. Thailand did not bother much since the beginning. ASEAN five points was undoable as the writer has said from day 1. EU is caught in a limbo.

The echelon governing the Union demand concrete steps to restore the power back to the fraudster. Yet the emissaries on the ground long for a negotiated solution to compete with the two giant powerhouses of Asia.

With 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Myanmar coming up next year, China is planning a bonanza of engagements to augment the increasing better relations between the two nations. India is not resting on its laurels either. Although falling behind China distinctly in terms of sponsorships, India is catching up through many think tanks and diplomatic and military exchanges. India navy officials did arrive on a friendly tour in December to travel around the country. The two navies have a very fruitful relationship that began nearly twenty years ago, resulting in the eventual acquisition of a submarine.

Trump probably does not even know where Myanmar is and $400 million obtained by the anti-establishment forces from the Biden Harris administration is no longer on the plate. But engagement with EU is an open option.

So what does EU want? You can list down from the impossible missions to the softballs. For example, talking with the NUG is a no-no for the government. Their baseline of kicking Tatmataw out of the constitution is an unworkable option. Moreover, many in the military and its supporters feel that talking to them would be worse than a stab in the heart, after NNCP terrorists killed many of their friends and kins. May be releasing one of the jailed leader of an ILO-approved union might be practical, but the government has to ensure that it can get some benefit out of this route.

Then there is the issue of Su Kyi.

Many of us believed she has to serve time for the crimes she had committed, especially on elections and financial frauds. So, she has to do time. But based on current status quo, sentencing for some of the crimes she has committed would not be begin till probably after the next election.By that time, she is already 80+ years old. From the practical standpoint, how many more years could she live? During her time in jail, she would always be a pain in the ass for the diplomatic relations between the West and Myanmar.
Even if she die while in prison, the government would still get blamed for that. Knowing how the Myanmar leaders doing good deeds, she is likely to be like released after a couple of years in jail, via presidential pardon or health reasons. Say, she is released at 82. If she is still able bodied, she would likely do a Shaun Turnell and would not keep her mouth shut. Who can realistically promise she would not cause another uprising?? However, if she is in another country, just like Turnell, the assumption is that she would not even be half as effective as being in town. So we can agree that Su Kyi being out in the open in the country, alive and kicking is bad for the stability of Myanmar. Could there possibly be another option?

What if we strike a deal with EU, to send her off to one of those European countries and let her kick the bucket over there. On the surface it seems like she is escaping justice. From the practical stand point, the end result would seem to be the same. Jail time could result in a short parole or death, both of which are bad for the country and the government. Releasing her might cause much emotional pain, but the country might gain on the diplomatic, trade and development front as a whole, with the West, provided the government knows how to demand properly. Once she is out of sight, she could be out of the minds of many. Would that not be a good thing after all? The thing of ultimate importance is that the government has to ensure that it earns enough credits, get back all the money being detained illegally in the West and trade concessions from such a deal while doing something whose result is substantially different from the other atternative. She would be forever gone. The thorn would be once and for all, removed. The talk that she is no future in Myanmar politics would become a reality. The devil and the deep blue sea are not so different after all.

The only real threat would be what if she became a liability overseas like Pan Sallo, who had become a multi millionaire in the US, from donations by the Myanmar diaspora while continuing to kill many innocent civilians back in Myanmar. It’s the risk that Myanmar is unable to take.

By Tim M Htut

Ref: https://www.myanmarinsider.com/caught-between-the-devil-and-the-deep-blue-sea/