In on the ground floor

The US's entry into Myanmar as a major actor is occurring after the nominal civilian regime in Naypyidaw cancelled a controversial hydro-electric dam project that was to be built with Chinese support. For long, Myanmar was a client State of China, a factor that was central to the US's distaste of it. That Myanmar could defy the Chinese is being seen as a sign that political space exists for the US to work as a facilitator of the democratisation process in Myanmar.
President Barack Obama's characterisation of Myanmar as a State with "flickers of progress" shows how a conjuncture has been created whereby Suu Kyi will work within the military-ordained system but will aim to eventually upend it, and the junta-backed civilian government will back away from China.
The most worried player in this denouement is China, which has reasons to fear American encroachment in Myanmar. In the larger context of the US's emphasis on vacating Europe and West Asia and focusing on the containment of China in Asia, Myanmar is a strategic location, where the impending presence of US diplomats, bureaucrats, corporations and civil society organisations can severely dent Chinese investments in Myanmar.
When it came to their respective foreign policies on Myanmar, the US and India have had their differences. India had cited neighbourhood security compulsions; economic needs to befriend the junta since the 1990s, while the US snubbed Myanmar. Now, with Clinton's visit, India has a chance to revisit its hands-off approach towards the question of regime change in Naypyidaw.
That a democratic Myanmar under Suu Kyi is morally as well as strategically the best option for India vis-Ã -vis the Chinese shadow across our eastern borders is a truism that New Delhi has ignored for long in the name of 'realpolitik'. America's jump into the foray now requires that India and the US act jointly to assist Suu Kyi and her supporters to achieve democracy.
Hindustan Times