New Delhi: President APJ Abdul Kalam arrived in Yangon on Wednesday on a three-day visit to Myanmar during which the two sides will firm up accords on enhancing cooperation in energy and space.
Kalam was warmly received at the Yangon International airport by Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council Senior General Than Shwe after the President's arrival on the first leg of his two-nation tour which will also take him to Mauritius.
New Delhi is determined that delicate issue won't cramp its new friendship with Yangon.
This will also include the trilateral gas pipeline issue involving Myanmar and Bangladesh and the trade route that links India with the ASEAN.
While remaining engaged with Myanmar, India favours restoration of multi-party democracy there and early release of pro-democracy leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi.
US President George Bush wants all countries including India to seek the release of Aung San Sui Kyi. But India will neither raise a stink over her continued incarceration, nor will it lecture Yangon on its human rights record.
"For various reasons it is important for India and Myanmar to remain engaged. While we remain engaged does it mean that we don't care about democracy in Myanmar. No," Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran says.
With hydrocarbon-starved India interested in energy supplies from wherever it can get, the two sides will sign an agreement on evacuation of natural gas from Arakan port of Myanmar, either through a pipeline via North East or Bangladesh.
"What we are looking at is an agreement between the two sides for the evacuation of natural gas which would be produced in these exploration blocks," Saran says.
This will be Kalam's first visit to a neighbouring country and the first ever visit by an Indian President to Myanmar. Saran also dismissed suggestions that India and China were competing to exert influence in Myanmar.
Kalam, who is accompanied by Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and some other senior officials, will seek to engage Myanmar's military junta in tackling the problem of insurgency in India's north-east region.
(With Agency inputs)
Comments
0 comment