At a joint press conference, Mr. Modi said: “We recognised that our security interests are closely aligned”.
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Excellency, we are deeply honoured that you have chosen India for your first bilateral State visit overseas.
Kyaw is on a four-day visit to India seeking support in the ongoing rebuilding efforts in Myanmar, formerly Burma.
After the leaders met, the two countries signed agreements on bridge construction, road upgrades, renewable energy, and traditional medicine.
After the NLD assumed power, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval visited Myanmar as a special envoy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 16, and Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman earlier led a high-level business delegation to the eastern neighbour for the India-Myanmar Business Conclave on May 18-20.
Modi said “we are deeply honored” that Myanmar’s president chose India for his “first bilateral state visit abroad” since being appointed in March after Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won a landslide general election following decades of military rule.
Myanmar’s Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi, center, sits with members of the United Wa State Army (UWSA) as they pose for photographs following a meeting of armed ethnic groups in Naypyitaw, Myanmar.
India and Myanmar have made a decision to step up the security ties and firm up their connectivity plans after Modi held extensive talks with President U Htin Kyaw – the first top-level engagement with the new government of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD).
“The new leadership must now overcome discrimination, ensure equality and promote inclusive development for all, with full respect for human rights”, Ban said on Monday on the eve of a visit to Myanmar.
The 5-day gathering, which officially opens Wednesday, is Suu Kyi’s first big drive to end multiple insurgencies that have raged in Myanmar’s borderlands since the country’s independence in 1948.
“India sees Myanmar as a key partner in its “Neighbourhood First” and “Act East” policy”.
The opening of the 21st Century Panglong Union Peace Conference marks an important milestone in the advancement of peace and national reconciliation in Myanmar.
The president said India looks forward to work with Myanmar in areas that it has prioritised such as infrastructure development, connectivity, capacity-building, education, healthcare and the setting up of small development projects. “I have told the President that we are willing to substantially scale up our supply of power”, the PM said, adding that both sides have also agreed to work towards a long-term and a mutually beneficial arrangement for trade in pulses.
“We are also ready to restore other historic monuments and pagodas, which were damaged in the natural disaster which hit Myanmar just last week”, he said.
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Few concrete proposals are to emerge from this week’s talks, with delegates expecting to meet every six months to discuss issues ranging from security, political representation and culture to sharing the fruits of Myanmar’s mineral riches.
