As part of its attempt to raise border guard forces with armed ceasefire groups in the border areas of Myanmar, the military junta has proposed to replace riot police personnel in the border townships of Buthidaung and Maungdaw with a new border defense force1.

In another significant development, on June 2, both South Korea and ASEAN leadership have signed a major free trade pact. Under this pact, both sides have not only pledged to fight protectionism, they have also decided to make efforts to come forward with new ideas regarding how to help each other in tackling the problems emerging from the current global financial meltdown2. They have also decided to join hands in dealing with issues like global warming and promotion of ‘green growth’ in the region3.

In the meantime, India has finally been able to convince the ASEAN leadership not to change the latter’s earlier position of reducing duty only once a year under the upcoming India-ASEAN FTA to be signed later this year. It is worth noting that earlier, ASEAN proposed for two annual tariff cuts with a view to achieving tariff reduction at a faster rate4.

• 1. “New border defence forces to replace riot police in Western Burma”, Burma News Online, June 4, 2009, at http://www.bnionline.net/news/narinjara/6396-new-border-defence-forces-t...
• 2. “Asean, S. Korea sign trade pact”, Bangkok Post, June 2, 2009, at http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/144909/asean-skorea-sign-trade-pact
• 3. “Asean, S. Korea agree on ‘green growth’”, Bangkok Post, June 2, 2009, at http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/144885/asean-skorea-to-promote-g...
• 4. “India gets kinder Asean duty cuts”, Indo-Burma News, June 6, 2009, at http://www.indoburmanews.net/archives-1/2009/june-2009/india-gets-kinder...