India attaches high priority to its ties with Myanmar

Mandalay, Nov 05: Observing that India attaches high priority to its relations with Myanmar, Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat today said with a number of cross-border projects taking off, it would help enhance trade and increase economic opportunities for people in the border areas.
Addressing the Indian community here, Shekhawat, who is on a five-day visit, said India and Myanmar shared deep-rooted spiritual and cultural affinities which provided a firm anchor to their bilateral relationship.
"India attaches high priority to relations with Myanmar and its people. We wish to see a stable, peaceful and prosperous Myanmar and a vibrant relationship between our two countries," he said.
Mandalay occupies a place of its own, not just in the history of Myanmar, but also in the history of India`s struggle for independence, he recalled that Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and several other freedom fighters were incarcerated in this city.
He remembered the remarks of Mahatma Gandhi during his visit to this city in 1929 that Mandalay was a place of pilgrimage for Indians.

Indeed, it was a common saying in those days that the path to swaraj, that is freedom of India, passed through Mandalay, he said.
Shekhawat said India has fascinated the rest of the world since time immemorial. The cultural ethos of India has the capacity to stay deep-rooted in the minds of the people, no matter where they live, he said.
Observing that cooperation between India and Myanmar has acquired a truly multi-dimensional character, he said the two sides were today cooperating in diverse fields, ranging from culture to science and technology.

He said the reopening of the Consulate General of India in Mandalay last year was in itself an "important milestone" and a manifestation of the relationship between the two countries.

It was a concrete expression of a mutually shared political commitment to increase bilateral exchanges to mutual benefit, he said.
Bureau Report