By IANS
New Delhi : The ongoing crisis in Myanmar will be high on the agenda when Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo holds talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday.
Arroyo begins her four-day visit to India from Mumbai – the country’s financial hub – late Wednesday. She flies to Mumbai after wrapping her two-day visit to Beijing.
This is the first visit by a Philippine president in over 10 years. President Fidel Ramos last visited India in March 1997.
Arroyo comes here Thursday night after addressing India’s top businessmen in Mumbai. All her major official engagements, including talks with Manmohan Singh, President Pratibha Patil and calls by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, among others, are scheduled for Friday.
In her talks with Manmohan Singh, Arroyo is likely to nudge him to take a stronger position on the festering crisis in Myanmar where a violent clampdown by government forces on pro-democracy protesters have killed over 10 people, including Buddhist monks who have been spearheading the biggest pro-democracy movement in the last two decades.
In unusually strong words, the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean), of which the Philippines is a key member, has expressed “revulsion” against the brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters in Myanmar.
After a couple of official statements calling for broad-based and inclusive political reforms and national reconciliation in Myanmar, New Delhi Monday urged the junta to order a probe into the uses of violence to quell pro-democracy protesters in the troubled country.
The US and the European Union have asked India and China to use their influence to push for reforms and dialogue in Myanmar.
Although her visit to India comes amid mounting global outrage over atrocities in Myanmar, the trip was meant to promote business ties between the two growing economies of Asia.
The two countries will sign an agreement that will enable visa free travel for the holders of diplomatic and official passports.
The agreement allows diplomatic and official passport holders to enter, transit through and exit from the territory of each other’s country and then allows them to stay in each other’s territory for a maximum period of 30 days without a visa.
A bilateral air agreement that will grant more entitlements to Philippine carriers Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific and Air Philippines is on the cards.
Philippines, an ally of the US, reacted frostily to India’s nuclear tests in 1998, but after India and the US struck a landmark civil nuclear deal in 2005, Manila is looking afresh at New Delhi as a rising power and IT hub.
Philippines is also seeking procurement of more cheap medicines from India, which is a primary source of the Philippine International Trading Co. for off-patent drugs.