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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Aung San Suu Kyi to visit India for BRICS summit
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Aung San Suu Kyi to visit India for BRICS summit

Aung San Suu Kyi's India visit will take place more than six months after her National League for Democracy party took office in March

Aung San Suu Kyi’s India visit follows her visit last week to China during which the two countries agreed to rework ties. Photo: APPremium
Aung San Suu Kyi’s India visit follows her visit last week to China during which the two countries agreed to rework ties. Photo: AP

New Delhi: Myanmar freedom icon and foreign minister Aung San Suu Kyi will visit India in October to take part in the Brazil, Russia, India, China South Africa (BRICS) outreach summit in Goa, the Indian foreign ministry said on Friday.

Suu Kyi’s visit will take place more than six months after her National League for Democracy (NLD) party took office in March, Myanmar’s first democratically elected government in decades.

Suu Kyi will represent Myanmar at the meet where leaders from the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) comprising Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand are also expected to be present. The grouping brings together 1.5 billion people—21% of world population, and a combined gross domestic product of over $2.5 trillion.

The Myanmarese leader’s India visit follows her visit last week to China during which the two countries agreed to rework ties, singed by the cancellation of the $3.6 billion Myitsone dam project by the previous government led by President Thein Sein in 2011.

Soon after taking office, Suu Kyi announced that her major goal was to end seven decades of civil war with ethnic minorities in Myanmar who have links with China. Last week, three of these groups—with reported links to China—said they would join a peace conference Suu Kyi is to convene shortly.

Ahead of Suu Kyi’s visit, the president of Myanmar U. Htin Kyaw will arrive in India on a state visit, Indian foreign ministry joint secretary in charge of Myanmar and Bangladesh Sripriya Ranganathan told reporters in New Delhi. The president’s visit to India is being viewed as Myanmar balancing ties between India and China, according to news reports.

The 27-30 August visit is the Myanmar president’s first overseas visit since taking office in March. The president’s visit “will help to further strengthen and expand traditionally close ties between the two countries," a foreign ministry statement said.

“It will help us understand the priorities of the new government and how India can help partner Myanmar," Ranganathan said.

Recent exchanges between India and the NLD government include a visit to Nay Pyi Taw by Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday and a trip to Myanmar by national security adviser Ajit Doval as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s special envoy on 16 June. Minister of state for commerce Nirmala Sitharaman also visited Myanmar heading a business delegation in May.

Indian officials describe Myanmar as an important neighbour for India not least because of security concerns vis-a-vis militants operating in its north-east taking shelter in Myanmar.

This was seen as the main reason why India, which backed Aung San Suu Kyi in her fight for democracy till the early 1990s, switched tracks and began engaging the military regime in Myanmar that had annulled the election results of 1990 and took power in the country despite the NLD winning the polls convincingly. Suu Kyi, who was put under house arrest for many years, called India’s action “disappointing" when freed in 2011.

India also views Myanmar as an important land bridge between South Asia and South-East Asia. India is constructing the Asian Trilateral Highway to connect India’s north-east to Thailand and beyond through Myanmar. According to Ranganathan, the project is to be completed by 2020, beyond the earlier anticipated deadline of 2017.

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Published: 27 Aug 2016, 12:00 AM IST
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