Nay Pyi Daw: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj arrived here today to hold talks with the top Myanmarese leadership, including State Counsellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi, in pursuance of India’s ‘Act East Policy’.
The one-day trip by Swaraj, accompanied by ForeignSecretary S Jaishankar and other senior Ministry of ExternalAffairs officials, is the first high profile Indian visitafter Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won ahistoric landslide election last year that finally brought anend to five decades of military rule.
She will call on President U Htin Kyaw, apart from meeting Nobel laureate and democracy icon Suu Kyi, who is thede facto leader. Banned from becoming president by a junta-eraConstitution, Suu Kyi has a strong control over the country’s first civilian-led government.
The Constitution effectively bans her from the top post as it rules out anyone with foreign-born children or spouses from becoming president — Suu Kyi married and had two sons with a British national. The military also retains control of the key home,defence and border affairs ministries, while 25 per cent of parliamentary seats are reserved for unelected soldiers. Incidentally, Swaraj’s visit comes just days afterSuu Kyi made a high-profile trip to China.
The discussions between Swaraj and Suu Kyi are expected tofocus on New Delhi’s bilateral relations with NayPyi Daw, as well as plans for the upcoming BRICS-BIMSTECOutreach Summit scheduled to be held in Goa. Security issues concerning certain Myanmar-basedmilitant groups operating in India’s North East could alsocome up for discussion. India and Myanmar share close relations with a robustdevelopment cooperation programme in areas such asagriculture, IT, human resource development, infrastructuredevelopment, culture among others. The visit reaffirms India’s commitment to heightenpartnership with Myanmar in the areas of priority by the newgovernment of Myanmar, External Affairs Ministry spokespersonVikas Swarup said.