Ground Zero

By Tan Yingzi and Cheng Guangjin | February 13, 2012 |

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Even in difficult times, Chinese and U.S. leaders remain strongly committed to open communication, Tan yingzi and Cheng guangjin report from Washington and Beijing.

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By Matt Spetalnick and Jeffrey Heller, WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM | Fri Mar 2, 2012 1:34am EST...

(Reuters) - Just days before what could be the most consequential meeting of U.S. and Israeli leaders in years, aides to President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are scrambling to bridge stark differences over what Washington fears could be an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear sites.

Posted in: နိုင္ငံတကာသတင္း,နိုင္ငံေရး

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By Timothy Gardner, WASHINGTON | Thu Mar 1, 2012 5:56pm EST ...

(Reuters) - Western trade sanctions against Iran are strangling its oil exports even before they go into effect, a U.S. advisory body has found, amid warnings that any shortages will only push up crude prices and strain a weak global economy.

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Analysis & Opinion ...

Chongqing Municipality Communist Party Secretary Bo Xilai looks on during a meeting at the annual session of China's parliament, the National People's Congress, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, March 6, 2010. REUTERS/Jason Lee

By Chris Buckley and Sui-Lee Wee, BEIJING | Wed Feb 8, 2012 3:57am EST ...

(Reuters) - The ambitious Communist Party chief of Chongqing in southwest China, Bo Xilai, was hit by a political storm on Wednesday after his deputy and long-time ally took "leave" amid rumors of infighting and even an attempted flight by the deputy to a U.S. consulate.

US encourages Burma to distance itself from China

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By John Roberts,23 February 2012 .....

The US has taken the first tentative steps toward lifting sanctions on Burma (Myanmar) as part of its efforts to facilitate a rapprochement with the military junta and undermine the country’s economic and strategic ties with China.

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Feb 24, 2012 Bangkokpost - Thailand is trying to strike a balance between diplomatic and trade benefits with Myanmar, a country that is opening up to the outside world after years of isolation and suppression.

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Feb 24, 2012 BEIJING (Reuters) - China has told Myanmar to better secure their joint border across which thousands of refugees have been fleeing to escape fighting since last year between the Myanmar government and ethnic minority rebels.

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Feb 24, 2012 TOKYO: Japan is moving to resume loans to Myanmar after a quarter of a century, a report said yesterday, the latest move by the world community to bring the country in from the cold.

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By GRANT PECK | Associated Press – Fri 6 Jan, 2012

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — British Foreign Secretary William Hague cautioned Friday while visiting Myanmar that foreign supporters of democracy must not slacken pressure on its military-backed government while reforms remain incomplete.

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Stanley Weiss (Founding Chairman, Business Executives for National Security)

Feb 23, 2012 YANGON, Myanmar--During the years he lived as a child in Indonesia, President Barack Obama learned the culture of Jakarta, spoke the language, survived chicken pox and recalls frequently feeling "the sting of [his] teachers' bamboo switches."

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Washington— The Associated Press, Published Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012 1:41PM EST ....

Human Rights Watch says that despite Myanmar's headlong rush toward reform and cease-fires reached with ethnic insurgents, abuses by the military have not abated.

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Feb 23, 2012 Bangkokpost - A huge fire swept through a crowded Thai border camp home to thousands of refugees from neighbouring Myanmar on Thursday, destroying hundreds of homes, the authorities said.

Myanmar: road to reform?

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Feb 22, 2012, Euronews - Myanmar has been isolated internationally for decades. However, in only a few months the country has made, what seems like, startling steps towards democracy. Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, will contest parliamentary elections in April for the first time since a recent ban was lifted on the opposition party.

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Published on 22 February 2012 - 9:22pm .....

Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi takes her party's election campaign to the country's conflict-riven far north Thursday in a bid to bolster support among ethnic minorities.

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7DAYS - The four Indian states sharing the country’s 1,640km border with the former Burma were supposed to be India’s gateway to Southeast Asia. Instead, the area has become India’s Wild East.

As resource-rich Myanmar emerges from decades of isolation under military rule, India should be a natural partner, with ties stretching back to the 3rd Century BC and, more recently, a shared experience of British colonialism and World War Two.

Myanmar sits at Asia’s crossroads. It has a western border with India, a northern one with China, and is also neighbours with fellow Asian nation Thailand.

“Myanmar is India’s only bridge to Southeast Asia,” Myo Myint, Myanmar’s deputy foreign minister, said last week, adding: “India needs to come forward with assistance.”

Yet spend some time in the restive state of Manipur at the eastern tip of India, and you’ll see small groups of men with machetes on their belts in the winter twilight, openly climbing steep paths through the poppy fields, where valuable seed heads are taken to Myanmar to be processed into heroin.

This is not what India had in mind when it launched its “Look East” policy 20 years ago to link its markets to those of booming Southeast Asia.

But despite a recent flurry of high-level visits between the two countries, India appears ill-placed on the ground to exploit Myanmar’s opening.

The sleepy border town of Moreh had dreams of being a major international trading centre, a key station on the ambitious Trans-Asia Railway that will enable containers from East and Southeast Asia to travel overland across India to Europe.

But work on the $900 million, 125km stretch of the railway is already two years behind schedule and has only progressed a short distance. Moreh is a major smuggling centre where outlaws move around freely. Heroin, guns and gemstones go westward; raw opium, tiger bones and rhino horn move east.

“Since 1995, nothing substantial has taken place. The border area is like a 17th-century tribal village,” said N. Mohindro, an expert on trade in the state.

“The Look East policy is no more than power-point presentations in Delhi,” concludes Lunminthang Haokip, a state government official for Moreh’s Chandel district.

http://www.7days.me/2012/02/india-doesnt-like-the-view-as-myanmar-policy-stalls/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=india-doesnt-like-the-view-as-myanmar-policy-stalls