Prime Minister Narendra Modi<\/a> during his recent Myanmar visit had urged all stakeholders to find a solution that respects the country\u2019s unity.<\/p>\nEven as Bangladesh and Myanmar signed an agreement to implement the Chinese peace plan, the Indian and Myanmar armies started on the first-ever counter-terrorism exercise in India, indicating New Delhi\u2019s strategic priority. It was yet an affirmation of India\u2019s reluctance to get involved in defusing a potential confrontational situation between two neighbours looked upon as strategic allies.<\/p>\n
China assuming the role of a mediator in Myanmar is in keeping with its readiness to mediate in other confrontations in West Asia and South Asia between Pakistan and India.<\/p>\n
It demonstrates China\u2019s desire to use its growing international influence to provide an alternative global narrative to the West. Whether China succeeds or not in resolving the Bangladesh-Myanmar gridlock by taking the initiative, President Xi Jinping is living up to his vision of China as a global power.<\/p>\n
\u2014The writer is a retired military intelligence specialist on South Asia,
\nand is associated with the Chennai Centre for China Studies
\nand International Law and Strategic Studies Institute <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Above: Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping (R) in Beijing. Photo:UNI With Beijing mediating between Bangladesh and its neighbour in the return of Muslim refugees to Rakhine state, is China assuming a bigger role in the region? ~By Colonel R Hariharan The first-ever visit of Pope Francis to Myanmar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[105],"tags":[31033,6503,15,23398,391],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/d2r2ijn7njrktv.cloudfront.net\/IL\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Lead-Picture-new5.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40354"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indialegallive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}