Imphal: After two years of hiatus, India and Myanmar are set to resume the bilateral trade via Manipur’s Moreh-Tamu border, reports said.
The official trade through the Moreh Integrated Check Post (ICP) has remained closed since March 2020 after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The External Affairs Ministry’s Border Management (BM) Division earlier this week sent an advisory to Manipur Chief Secretary Rajesh Kumar to resume India-Myanmar border trade.
“We have now been approached by the Myanmar side to open the border gates for resuming border trade between India and Myanmar. All concerned stakeholders in the Government of India and the Manipur state government have recommended opening border gate no 1 at the ICP, Moreh,” MEA’s Border Management Division Joint Secretary Smita Pant in her communication to Manipur Chief Secretary said.
As per reports, the Manipur government would soon issue a formal order to resume the trade between India and Myanmar.
Traders on both sides of the border are keen to resume the India-Myanmar trade through the Moreh and Mizoram’s Zokhawthar (closed for many years) trading points to curb the rampant illegal trade in various items, especially highly addictive drugs.
Moreh in Manipur and Zokhawthar in Mizoram are the two important international trading points along the 1,643-km long India-Myanmar unfenced border.