Myanmar Development:

India pledges millions

INDIA: Myanmar’s ruler Than Shwe flew to Hyderabad Wednesday on the latest leg of a state visit to India that has garnered millions of dollars in grants for infrastructure projects.

The General left New Delhi having received a full, red-carpet welcome Tuesday and held talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The two countries signed a series of pacts Tuesday including one to strengthen security along their common border, where India is struggling to curb ethnic separatists.

India also offered a grant of 60 million dollars to build a road connecting Myanmar with the northeast Indian state of Mizoram.

India’s EXIM bank agreed to provide a 60-million-dollar line of credit to fund various railway projects, and New Delhi also pledged 10 million dollars for the purchase of modern agricultural equipment.

India began engaging Myanmar in the mid-1990s as security, energy and strategic priorities came to the fore.

As well as needing the regime’s help to counter the separatists along the common border, India is eyeing oil and gas fields in Myanmar.

Myanmar has promised to hold the first elections since 1990 later this year.

A joint statement said the Prime Minister had simply “emphasized the importance of comprehensively broad-basing the national reconciliation process and democratic changes being introduced in Myanmar.”

Than Shwe was due to meet Indian business leaders in Hyderabad yesterday.

He flies to the eastern city of Kolkata before returning home. NEW DELHI, AFP