India’s Free Movement Regime with Myanmar

• The Free Movement Regime (FMR) between India and Myanmar is a mutually agreed arrangement that allows tribes living along the border on either side to travel up to 16 km inside the other country without a visa.
• Implemented in 2018 as part of India’s Act East policy, the FMR facilitates people-to-people interactions, cultural assimilation, and local trade.

India’s decision to scrap FMR

• Last year, Home Minister Amit Shah announced that FMR will be scrapped. 
• However, the agreement is yet to be suspended and no formal orders have been issued to the effect. 
  • Myanmar is engulfed in an intensified armed conflict between ethnic armed organisations and the military junta.
• The Union Home Ministry, in December 2025, finalised new guidelines to regulate the movement of border residents with QR code enabled passes. 
• At present, apart from a 10 km stretch in Manipur, the India-Myanmar border through hills and jungles is unfenced. 
• The security forces have for decades grappled with members of extremist groups carrying out hit-and-run operations from their clandestine bases in the Chin and Sagaing regions of Myanmar. 
• The ease of cross-border movement was often flagged for inward trafficking of drugs and outward trafficking of wildlife body parts. 

Why in News?

• As many as 22 out of 43 crossing points along the Myanmar border under the revised Free Movement Regime agreement have started functioning.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/under-revised-free-movement-regime-22-gates-along-myanmar-border-functional-10-on-manipur-border/article69216697.ece