ABSTRACT
The Eastern Himalayan landscape has a complex mosaic of nation-states: Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Northeast part of India and Myanmar. It is dotted with a terrain and ethnic character that is distinctive, challenging, and picturesque. For Indian security perspective, the region is quite challenging with Chinese power breathing down hard from across the Eastern Himalayas and Myanmar, coupled with cross-border non-state armed groups impacting daily life in this multifaceted landscape. Northeast India can develop, prosper and eventually overcome its troubles by engaging eastern foreign neighbors. Especially with the recent agreement on the Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar (BCIM) economic corridor blueprint, India can access markets in China’s west and southwest, through the Northeastern borders. Yunnan, the neighboring province in China is the network hub for trade and connectivity with the rest of the country. Equally important for Northeast India is the regional connectivity under the sub-regional and regional cooperations such as Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), and the Greater Mekong Sub-region Cooperation (GMS). But, one must factor into account the ugly behemoth of narcotics trafficking intertwined with ethnic insurgencies in the neighboring Golden Triangle to ensure that ethnic communities in the Northeast are protected and can optimally benefit from the new slew of opportunities opening up for them. Huge quantities of illicit narcotics can easily ride the new access routes of greater connectivity and can blow up already existing issues of secured human health and wellbeing of society. This chapter discusses the impact of the drug and illegal arms smuggling across India’s eastern neighbourhood into Northeast India. The chapter identifies the sources of these illegal trade as well as the linking areas with the help of extensive mapping. The chapter deliberates on China’s presence especially in Myanmar and the former’s engagement with some of the ethnic Myanmar armed groups, and its impact on Northeast India. It ends by offering certain recommendations.
