India’s Modi meets Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing in New Delhi, drawing regional backlash

Myanmar’s military regime leader, Min Aung Hlaing, met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, marking his first official trip abroad since consolidating his grip on power and assuming the country’s presidency.

According to India’s Ministry of External Affairs, the June 1 meeting focused on bilateral relations, mechanisms to enhance cross-border cooperation, and strengthening the longstanding “historical and civilizational ties” between the neighbouring countries.

The diplomatic reception marks a significant milestone for Min Aung Hlaing, representing his first official head-of-state engagement since he was inaugurated as Myanmar’s president on April 10.

The two leaders last met on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC Summit in Bangkok in April 2025, and the visit follows a high-profile trip by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Naypyidaw just weeks prior.

Economic ties that bind

Ahead of his meeting with Modi, Min Aung Hlaing attended the Myanmar-India Trade and Investment Conclave in New Delhi on May 31, where he actively courted Indian business delegations and high-ranking government officials.

“Indian entrepreneurs are invited to invest in Myanmar with confidence and trust,” he told attendees, pitching investment opportunities across agriculture, manufacturing, information technology, energy, education, and healthcare.

Min Aung Hlaing highlighted India’s footprint in the country, noting that New Delhi is currently Myanmar’s 11th largest foreign investor, backing 39 active projects valued at over $782 million USD.

He also underscored Myanmar’s severe dependence on its neighbour for healthcare, revealing that approximately 60 per cent of Myanmar’s pharmaceutical imports originate from India.

As part of his itinerary, the regime leader toured the NTPC Energy Technology Research Alliance (NETRA) facility in Greater Noida, where Indian officials briefed him on renewable energy, hydrogen production, and carbon capture technologies.

Min Aung Hlaing is scheduled to travel to Mumbai on June 2 to continue talks with industrial leaders.

New Delhi’s border realpolitik

India has maintained steady diplomatic and economic ties with the military junta since the February 2021 coup, which ousted the democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government and led to the detention of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.

New Delhi has consistently defended its engagement with the regime by citing critical security, economic, and strategic interests along the volatile 1,600-kilometer Myanmar-India border.

The diplomatic reception in New Delhi has triggered fierce condemnation from human rights groups and regional lawmakers, who argue that hosting the regime leader severely undermines international efforts to isolate the military leadership.

‘Mother of democracy’

“Min Aung Hlaing is not Myanmar’s legitimate president. He is the architect of a brutal coup that overthrew a democratically elected government, and has since presided over a campaign of mass atrocities against his own people,” said Mercy Chriesty Barends, Chairperson of the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR).

In a stinging press release issued on June 1, APHR warned that India’s hospitality directly contradicts the ethical foundations of its own “Neighborhood First” and “Act East” foreign policy frameworks.

“None of those principles are served by extending diplomatic hospitality to a general whose forces have killed more than 7,700 civilians, bombed villages, forcibly conscripted civilians, and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes,” the APHR statement read, adding that New Delhi’s engagement actively weakens ASEAN’s diplomatic consensus on the Myanmar crisis.