Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with Myanmar Senior General Min Aung Hlaing on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Tianjin on Sunday. In a social media post, the PM said, “Myanmar is a vital pillar of India’s Act East and Neighbourhood First Policies. We both agreed that there is immense scope to boost ties in areas like trade, connectivity, energy, rare earth mining, and security.”
According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the Prime Minister noted that India attaches importance to its ties with Myanmar as part of its Neighbourhood First, Act East, and Indo-Pacific policies. The two leaders reviewed bilateral ties and discussed the way forward on several aspects of cooperation, including development partnership, defence and security, border management, and border trade issues.
The Prime Minister stressed that progress on ongoing connectivity projects would foster greater interaction between the people of the two countries while promoting regional cooperation and integration as envisioned in India’s Act East Policy.
He also expressed hope that the forthcoming elections in Myanmar would be held in a fair and inclusive manner involving all stakeholders. Modi underlined that India supports a Myanmar-led and Myanmar-owned peace process, for which peaceful dialogue and consultation is the only way forward, and reiterated India’s readiness to support the developmental needs of Myanmar, the MEA stated.
