'India & US to be in contact over the ongoing Myanmar coup', informs MEA

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) informed on Friday that India and the United States have agreed to remain in contact over the situation in Myanmar. While speaking at a media briefing, MEA Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said that developments in Myanmar were discussed during the telephonic conversation between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.

"Recent developments in Myanmar were discussed during the telephone conversations between President Biden and Prime Minister Modi on February 8 and the External Affairs Minister and his US counterpart Secretary Blinken on February 9," Mr Srivastava said.

"India and the US have agreed to remain in contact and exchange assessments on the situation,"  he added.

The US sanctions military

On Thursday, US President Joe Biden announced a series of sanctions on the military leaders of Myanmar in response to their recent action to overthrow a democratically elected leader in a coup. Biden said he has approved a new executive order enabling the US to immediately sanction the military leaders who directed the coup, their business interests, as well as close family members. US has also frozen US assets that benefit the Myanmar government while maintaining our support for healthcare, civil society groups, and other areas that benefit the people of Myanmar directly. Biden also issued support to the ongoing pro-democracy protests in Myanmar, calling the UN Security Council to strengthen the world's commitment to humans.

Myanmar Military Coup 

On February 1, the Myanmar military began detaining the democratically elected members of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party. State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other members of the Parliament were detained by the military, who later declared an emergency for a year. After the coup, Myanmar Army's Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing took charge of the country. The coup occurred a day before Myanmar's newly elected members of Parliament were supposed to be sworn-in.

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