TAIPEI/CHIANG MAI -- An India-hosted round of alternative negotiations with Myanmar has produced informal agreements to reduce violence on "all sides," curb transnational crime and expedite humanitarian aid to the conflict-wracked country, according to a source directly involved, cranking up pressure on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to adjust its own diplomacy.
India organized a "Track 1.5 meeting" on Myanmar this week in New Delhi as a follow-up to a similar meeting in Bangkok last month. In addition to Indian officials, think tank experts and midlevel representatives of Myanmar's military regime, five other ASEAN countries took part: Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, with Indonesia present as the organization's rotating chair.
