"A month after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s official state visit to Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s president, U Win Myint, is scheduled for an official visit to India in the upcoming weeks. He is expected to travel to India a few days after U.S. President Trump’s official state visit to the same country on February 24. This second presidential visit to India within a year is part of Naypyidaw’s strategic ballet with New Delhi to maintain its strategic autonomy in the Indian Ocean power rivalry. While Beijing is speeding up the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) and upgrading the bilateral relationship as part of the “community of common destiny,” New Delhi has its own game beyond economic ties with Myanmar. Focusing on military cooperation and knowledge exchange, India has already won the heart of Myanmar military (Tatmadaw). Through close ties to the Myanmar Navy, New Delhi is keeping the Indian Ocean secure, which is the essence of the grand Indo-Pacific strategy to restrain Beijing’s expansion. Naypyidaw still does not have a clear policy to engage over this strategy, as the core concept of the “Indo-Pacific” is still loosely constructed and differently interpreted in the region. However, the strategic military-to-military partnership between New Delhi and the Tatmadaw creates space for Myanmar to adhere to a core principle, an independent and active foreign policy, by giving an alternative to China for Myanmar to engage with..."