Burma Talks

Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has a population of about 55 million. It is bordered by India and Bangladesh to the northwest, China to the northeast, Laos and Thailand to the east and southeast, and the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal to the south and southwest. The country's capital city is Naypyidaw, while its largest city is Yangon (formerly Rangoon).

Early civilisations in the area included the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu city-states in Upper Myanmar and the Mon kingdoms in Lower Myanmar. In the 9th century, the Bamar people entered the upper Irrawaddy valley, and following the establishment of the Pagan Kingdom in the 1050s, the Burmese language and culture and Theravada Buddhism slowly became dominant in the country. The Pagan Kingdom fell to Mongol invasions, and several warring states emerged. In the 16th century, reunified by the Taungoo dynasty, the country became the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia for a short period. The early 19th-century Konbaung dynasty ruled over an area that included modern Myanmar and briefly controlled Assam, the Lushai Hills, and Manipur as well. The British East India Company seized control of the administration of Myanmar after three Anglo-Burmese Wars in the 19th century, and the country became a British colony. After a brief Japanese occupation, Myanmar was reconquered by the Allies. In 1948, Myanmar declared independence under the terms of the Burma Independence Act 1947.

Myanmar's post-independence history has been checkered by continuous unrest and conflict. A coup d'état in 1962 resulted in a military dictatorship under the Burma Socialist Programme Party. The 8888 Uprising in 1988 resulted in a transition to a multi-party system two years later, but the country's post-uprising military junta, led by members of the Tatmadaw, refused to cede power and continued to rule the country directly until 2011, when the junta was officially dissolved following the 2010 general election. A nominally civilian government was installed and longtime political prisoners like Aung San Suu Kyi were released, but the military retained power over key government operations. The 2015 general election led to a transition of power to the National League for Democracy, although the country's treatment of its ethnic minorities, particularly the Rohingya genocide, continued to be a source of international tension. Following the 2020 general election, in which the NLD won a clear majority in both houses, the Tatmadaw again seized power in the 2021 coup d'état. The coup led to widespread protests and has been marked by violent political repression by the military, as well as the outbreak of a civil war. The military again arrested Aung San Suu Kyi in order to remove her from public life. The country transitioned to a nominally civilian government in 2026.

Myanmar is a member of the East Asia Summit, Non-Aligned Movement, ASEAN, and BIMSTEC. Myanmar is a Dialogue Partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The country is very rich in natural resources, such as jade, gems, oil, natural gas, teak and other minerals, as well as endowed with renewable energy, having the highest solar power potential compared to other countries of the Great Mekong Subregion. However, Myanmar has long suffered from instability, factional violence, corruption, poor infrastructure, as well as a long history of colonial exploitation with little regard to human development. In 2013, its GDP (nominal) stood at US$56.7 billion and its GDP (PPP) at US$221.5 billion. The income gap in Myanmar is among the widest in the world, as a large proportion of the economy is controlled by cronies of the military junta. Myanmar is one of the least developed countries in the world.

The country remains riven by ethnic strife among its myriad ethnic groups and has one of the world's longest-running ongoing civil wars. The United Nations and several other organisations have reported consistent and systemic human rights violations in the country. Since 2021, more than 600,000 people have been displaced across Myanmar due to the civil war post-coup, with more than three million people in dire need of humanitarian assistance. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are over 1.3 million people counted as refugees and asylum seekers, and 3.5 million people displaced internally as of December 2024.

From Myanmar on Wikipedia