Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inspects a guard of honour, along with Myanmar President U Thein Sein, at the presidential palace in Naypyidaw on Monday. (AFP)

Naypyitaw, May 28: It is a great leap forward for a country that bore the brunt of Myanmar’s descent into a long night of army rule.

What India and Myanmar initiated here today could change history and geography not only for the two neighbours, but also for a region where China’s domination has long been taken for granted.

The agreements signed between the two countries today could go a long way to revive a relationship that broke down completely when, following the military coup in Myanmar in 1962, Indian businesses were nationalised and Indian entrepreneurs expelled en masse. The vacuum that followed further disconnected lives of millions of people living along the long border between the two countries.

In all the agreements that were signed today, the thrust is clearly on reconnecting or simply connecting what has remained disconnected for nearly half a century. Whether it is building roads, ports, power facilities or telecommunications and opening up India’s Northeast to a new world of opportunities, it has all the makings of a brave new beginning.

The fact that Myanmar is at last taking its first steps towards democracy makes its transition significant for its neighbours and the world at large.

In his opening remarks at the delegation-level talks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set the tone by saying that his visit aimed to prepare a “roadmap for the future”.

His references to “path-breaking reform measures taken by the government of Myanmar towards greater democratisation and national reconciliation” clearly had an underlying message that could not have been missed by U. Thein Sein.

The message from the man, who initiated India’s economic reforms, was: the hopes of a new beginning for Myanmar could collapse if the country relapsed into another military rule. Economic hopes of and from Myanmar are inextricably linked to its political progress — a point that Singh is expected to make during his meeting with Aung Sang Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who is the icon of Myanmar’s democratic hopes.

From India’s point of view, trade and road connectivity could get better only with a corresponding political connectivity with democracy as its engine.

During the talks here, India thus offered not only trade and investment opportunities, but also institutions — Parliament, the National Human Rights Commission and the media — to help Myanmar’s progress towards democracy. Singh offered Sein India’s help train the latter’s parliamentarians.

“Myanmar surely would need help in this as democracy is yet an untested thing for both its rulers and its people,” said an Indian official.

Bharti Airtel boss Sunil Mittal, who is leading a team of top Indian businessmen, put the whole exercise in perspective. Talking about the team’s meeting with the Myanmar president, which lasted more than an hour, he said: “No, we haven’t missed the bus in Myanmar (to China). This is a country that is happening only now (with the democratic reforms).”

It was symbolic of India’s new attempt to connect to Myanmar that Mittal urged Sein to allow Indian mobile phone companies to start roaming facilities here.

A joint statement issued after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s meeting with Sein said the two leaders had agreed on a “vision for the future in the pursuit of the common good — bilaterally, regionally and globally”.

The Indian side was optimistic that the agreements and the projects they envisaged would “seek to fill vital gaps in our connectivity and physical infrastructural linkage with Myanmar”.

Of the 12 agreements and memoranda of understanding, signed between the two sides today, most covered issues and areas linked to connectivity — road, rail and air services — and the overall thrust on what was described in the joint statement as “India-Myanmar border area development”.

The bus from Imphal to Mandalay, though, may take some more time to roll. The road on the Myanmar side is “not there”, as foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai said.

It would take three years to complete the road and allow the proposed bus service to be operational throughout the year.