Asia

Myanmar has quietly emerged as a crucial node in the global high-tech supply chain due to its vast reserves of heavy rare earth elements (HREEs) like dysprosium and terbium. Beijing has externalised the severe environmental and socio-political costs of critical mineral extraction by outsourcing HREE mining to northern Myanmar, establishing a de facto monopoly. However, the fluid governance dynamics of the Indo-Myanmar and Sino Myanmar borderlands, driven by Ethnic Armed Organisations and political instability in Myanmar since the coup of 2021, have disrupted Beijing’s stranglehold. This commentary analyses how India, leveraging its strategic positioning across the shared borderlands, can utilise this geopolitical inflection point to bolster its critical mineral security and advance its Act East ambitions

Myanmar has become a key geopolitical battleground in the India–China rivalry. China seeks strategic access to the Indian Ocean, while India views Myanmar as vital to its Act East Policy. Through connectivity projects and infrastructure investments, both powers are competing for long-term influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

Trump’s Beijing summit sought to stabilise increasingly adversarial US-China ties. While both leaders projected cooperation, deep structural conflicts over technology, supply chains, Taiwan, and rare earths persist, marking a new era of managed strategic competition.