NAYPYITAW, Myanmar (AP) ― India agreed to provide Myanmar with a $500 million credit as one of 12 deals signed during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the Southeast Asian country.
Singh is on a three-day visit that underscores India’s quest for energy supplies and concerns about China’s strong influence in Myanmar.
He met with Myanmar’s reformist President Thein Sein, and together they attended the signings for the credit line between the Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank and the Export and Import Bank of India, an air services pact and other agreements.
Singh’s visit is the first in 25 years by an Indian prime minister, even though the two countries share a 1,600-kilometer land border, as well as a maritime border in the Bay of Bengal. Then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi visited Myanmar in 1987.
The current trip follows high-level visits to India by Thein Sein in October and reciprocal visits by the foreign ministers of the two countries.
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
