Oct 14, 2011

Briefing by Official Spokesperson and JS BSM on State Visit of President of Myanmar

October 13, 2011

Official Spokesperson (Shri Vishnu Prakash): President of Myanmar H.E. Thein Sein arrived yesterday, the 12th of October, on a State visit to India, and would be in the country till the 15th of October. My colleague Mr. Harsh Shringla, Joint Secretary (BSM) and I would be happy to brief you about this very important ongoing visit.

The President assumed office on the 30th of March this year after general elections and this is the first high-level visit from Myanmar to India, of the new civilian government. The President is accompanied by his spouse and is leading a high-level delegation that includes a number of his Cabinet colleagues such as the Minister for Border Affairs and Myanmar’s Industrial Development, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Minister for Agriculture and Irrigation, the Minister for Religious Affairs, the Minister of Industry, the Minister of Electric Power, the Minister of National Planning and Economic Development as well as the Minister for Livestock and Fisheries, the Union Minister for Transport, the Union Minister for Energy, the Minister of Science and Technology, the Union Minister of Commerce, the Chief of General Staff in the Ministry of Defence, the Deputy Minister of Health, a number of senior officials, and other members of the delegation.

He arrived yesterday at Gaya and is presently undertaking a pilgrimage of the holy Buddhist sites at Gaya, Khushinagar and Sarnath. He will be arriving later in the evening at New Delhi. Tomorrow there will be a ceremonial reception and welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan. There will be a call on him by the External Affairs Minister followed by delegation-level talks at noon with the Prime Minister of India, signing of some agreements. He would be paying a visit to Akshardham Temple. In the evening he meets the President who also hosts a banquet in the honour of the visiting dignitary.

Given that agriculture is an important area of cooperation between our countries, he is also visiting the Indian Agricultural Research Institute on Saturday the 15th before emplaning for Myanmar. That is the brief programme of the President.

This is his third visit to India. He first visited India in 2004 during the state visit of Sr. General Than Shwe as Secretary-1 as he was called then. He next visited in November 2008 as the Prime Minister of Myanmar to participate in the BIMSTEC Summit in New Delhi.

Given our geographical proximity, India and Myanmar have enjoyed a longstanding relationship underpinned by ethnic, cultural and linguistic proximities, affinities. A large section of the Myanmar population is Buddhist and naturally sees India as their spiritual home. By various counts, something like a million people in Myanmar are of Indian origin.

Four of India’s Northeastern States – Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram – share a land border with Myanmar which is more than 1600 kilometres. In fact, Myanmar is the only Southeast Asian State with which we have a land boundary, and as such it is a bridge between South Asia and Southeast Asia, and also a gateway to the ASEAN region. Naturally connectivity through Myanmar can play a valuable role in spurring economic development in our northeastern region.

Myanmar is also an integral part in our Look East Policy. India and Myanmar are members of a number of regional fora including BIMSTEC, the East Asia Summit, ASEAN Plus Six, as well as other international fora. In 2008, Myanmar became an Observer at the SAARC.

Recent years have not only witnessed robust bilateral cooperation but also a number of high-level visits which include that of our Vice-President in February, 2009. Senior General Than Shwe paid the second state visit to India in July 2010 and, as I mentioned, before that he had visited India in October 2004. After the elections this year, the External Affairs Minister visited Myanmar in June, and now we are in the process of welcoming President Thein Sein. Our relations with Myanmar encompass a number of important areas like security, trade and investments, energy, capacity-building, health and education, science and technology, as well as infrastructure development.

With respect to security we have ongoing cooperation with Myanmar. We have also received assurances that Myanmar territory will not be allowed to be used for insurgent activities against India. Both sides remained in close and regular contact in this regard.

Enhanced connectivity between the two countries is of mutual interest. I would like to note that work is under way in establishing the Kaladan Multi Modal Transport Corridor which would connect our eastern ports to Mizoram through the Sittwe Port in Myanmar and from Sittwe Port the corridor moves North via the revirine and the road segments. A number of other initiatives are also in the pipeline.

India and Myanmar in 2010-11 had a bilateral trade of 1.28 billion dollars which is much below the potential. There was a Joint Trade Committee meeting recently in Delhi on the 27th of September, which was chaired by the Commerce Ministers on both sides. They have established a target of three billion dollars in trade by 2015. We are the biggest importer of pulses from Myanmar. Indian pharmaceutical companies play a lead role, they have a sizeable presence in Myanmar, providing quality pharmaceutical products at very competitive prices. To boost trade and commercial ties it has been decided to have an Enterprise India show at Yangon between the 10th and the 13th of November this year which we hope would become a regular feature in the years ahead.

Myanmar is also emerging as an important partner in India’s quest for energy security. Indian companies like ONGC Videsh Limited, GAIL, the Essar Group already have a presence in the country.

India has been pleased, we believe it is a privilege of ours, to be Myanmar’s developmental partner including in the agriculture sector which is important to both our countries. At the request of Myanmar, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan visited the country recently to ascertain the requirements for setting up an Advanced Centre for Agricultural Research and Education at a place called Yezin. A Detailed Project Report is currently under preparation. We will also be supplying tractors and other agricultural implements to Myanmar.

Myanmar has been quite pleased by the success of an Industrial Training Centre to develop skilled manpower that was established and handed over by India recently at a place called Pakokku. Myanmar has requested India’s assistance for another India-Myanmar Industrial Training Centre at Mying Yan. A MoU for establishment of the same was concluded during the visit of our External Affairs Minister to Myanmar in June this year. We are similarly working closely with Myanmar in fields like IT education, culture, health, disaster relief as well as other areas.

We are pleased at the manner in which our mutually beneficial ties with Myanmar are acquiring momentum. We do attach the highest importance to the state visit of the President of Myanmar and are confident that this would place our relationship on an even more stronger footing. [MEA India Press Release].