We will help combat insurgency: Myanmar

By Amit Baruah

YANGON, FEB. 16. The Myanmar Foreign Minister, U Wing Aung, has said that Yangon would like to see India and China as ``peaceful, big neighbouring countries'' and stressed that his country had developed good relations with both New Delhi and Beijing.

In an exclusive interview to The Hindu after the External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, concluded a successful visit to Myanmar yesterday, U Wing Aung said Myanmar would cooperate with India in dealing with insurgency along the international border.

He said BIMSTEC (grouping Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand) could become the link between South and South-East Asia, adding that Myanmar was strategically located in the ``middle.''

On Myanmar's return to democracy and the recent talks between the junta and the general secretary of the National League of Democracy, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, U Wing Aung said the process of dialogue would go on. The NLD had dropped its confrontationist posture which had created an ``atmosphere of better understanding'' and ``mutual respect.''

``I think that's the stage where we are now. And (from) this stage we have to move on. It's a gradual process... sometimes the world would like to see very quick results...

``We need to find solutions where our people of 135 national races could live together forever. And, we are hoping for national reconciliation,'' he said, adding that Myanmar's problems needed to be addressed together to arrive at solutions.

The Minister, who spoke of a historic turn in Indo- Myanmar relations, referred to the possibility of the two countries developing a deep-sea port at Kyaukpyu, providing a linkage to Mizoram, apart from cooperation in several hydel projects and the area of information technology.

He called for the inclusion of the 2710-km-long Irrawady river's name in the Mekong-Ganga cooperation launched by India, Myanmar and four other countries in Laos last year. He was also keen that China be included in the present MGC grouping as it was a Mekong country.

``Your Foreign Minister mentioned the Ganga-Mekong cooperation. In between we would like to send in (introduce) the Irrawady. Why not Ganga-Irrawady-Mekong?''

``We in the middle are very much strategic. We would like to see India and China as peaceful, big neighbouring countries. If they were fighting against each other, we would not be peaceful. That's why we are now having better relations, good relations with China (and) at the same time good relations with India,'' U Wing Aung said.

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