The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, today said India and Myanmar would explore new initiatives and define a roadmap to further boost bilateral ties with focus on trade, investment and connectivity as he begins a three-day visit to that country.
Pointing out that India attaches the highest importance to its relations with Myanmar, a “close friend and neighbour”, Dr Singh said in a statement shortly before his departure for Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar’s new capital, that “recent years have witnessed significant strengthening and expansion of our bilateral relations”.
He added that his coming visit “will provide an opportunity to review the progress in implementation of decisions” taken during the “highly successful visit” of Myanmar President, Mr Thein Sein, to India in October last year.
“We will also consider new initiatives and define a roadmap for the further development of our cooperation in the years ahead,” said Dr Singh who will be the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Myanmar in quarter of a century since Rajiv Gandhi’s trip to that country in December, 1987.
The Prime Minister, who will hold talks with Mr Sein tomorrow at Nay Pyi Taw, said that during his visit to Myanmar he hopes to focus on “stronger trade and investment links, development of border areas, improving connectivity between our two countries and building capacity and human resources“.
“We also hope to sign a number of agreements and MoUs to further strengthen our bilateral cooperation in these areas, besides promoting people—to—people contacts,” Dr Singh said.
Pacts may cover energy, IT
High on Dr Singh’s agenda of talks with the Myanmar President, a former army general heading a quasi-civilian government, will be deepening ties in energy, security, connectivity, trade and information technology.
The high-points among the slew of agreements will be the ones relating to an offshore gas block awarded to private Indian company Jubilant Energy in global competition and a passenger bus service between Imphal and Mandalay, Myanmar's second largest city after Yangon.
India will be flagging its interests in getting more opportunities in both offshore and onshore energy sources in Myanmar. GAIL and OVL already have minority stakes in energy sector from where the gas is being transported to China.
India expects that the visit of the Prime Minister, who will be accompanied by his wife Ms Gursharan Kaur and the External Affairs Minister, Mr S.M. Krishna, will take bilateral relations to a “new level” given the new political environment in Myanmar which has seen remarkable political reforms that have seen that country emerging from decades of diplomatic isolation.
The Prime Minister’s engagements include a public address on “India and Myanmar: A Partnership for Progress and Regional Development” where the leading think—tanks of Myanmar and the business captains of the two countries will be present.
Reflecting the importance of the economic content of the bilateral relations, a group of captains Indian business and industries representing energy, telecom, IT, steel and agriculture sectors will be in Myanmar during Singh’s visit.
As the gateway to South East Asia, Myanmar has been of considerable strategic significance to India and central to its Look East policy, given its energy reserves, and 1,640 km border with insurgency—hit four northeastern states —— Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.