The Associated Press
India has agreed to build a multimillion-dollar (euro) seaport and transportation system in Myanmar as it presses ahead with investment in its much-criticized neighbor.
The agreement was signed Wednesday by officials during a meeting between the second-highest member of Myanmar's ruling junta, Vice Senior Gen. Maung Aye, and Indian Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari, India's Foreign Ministry said.
India has been investing in Myanmar despite international calls for sanctions on the Southeast Asian country's military government, which violently suppressed pro-democracy protests several months ago.
A ministry statement gave no details of the deal. Earlier, Indian officials said India would upgrade waterways and highways along Myanmar's Kaladan River and develop the port of Sittway in the country's northwest in the US$120 million (€81 million) project.
"This project will greatly enhance connectivity between Myanmar and India, in particular with India's northeast states," the ministry statement said.
India has established deep economic and military ties with Myanmar's ruling junta over the past decade and has said it believes talking quietly is a better approach than sanctions.
During his six-day trip to India, Maung Aye has also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who reiterated New Delhi's commitment to support Myanmar in telecommunications and information technology, the statement said.
The general, whose visit ends Saturday, said he appreciated India's assistance with infrastructure projects, road construction, lines of credit and setting up an information technology center in Myanmar, it said.
The agreement was signed the same day as detained Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party urged voters to reject a military-backed draft constitution, saying it was undemocratic and written under the junta's direct control.
The charter will be voted on in a referendum next month. The junta has also announced general elections in 2010.
The Indian ministry's statement quoted Prime Minister Singh as saying Myanmar needs to speed up its promised democratization process.
India shifted its policy from supporting Suu Kyi to engaging the junta's generals in the early 1990s, partly because of a desire for access to Myanmar's large natural gas reserves.
The transportation system will give India greater access to the reserves, which it needs to fuel its rapid economic growth.
India has also recently sought to increase its influence in Myanmar in an attempt to counter China, which has become the junta's main ally.
In addition, India has been eager to secure the cooperation of the Myanmar military in containing separatist groups fighting New Delhi's rule in northeastern India near the Myanmar border. Several of the groups have set up bases across the 1,331-kilometer (830-mile) border and used them to launch attacks in India.
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