New Delhi, (IANS) The situation in Myanmar and Nepal dominated talks when British foreign office minister for South Asia, Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, met with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee here Monday.
Malloch-Brown, on his first visit to India, met with Mukherjee in his South Block office, that was preceded by a meeting with Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon.
While details of the meeting were not disclosed, Malloch-Brown, on arrival in India earlier in the day, had said he would discuss with Mukherjee “the importance of keeping up pressure on the Burmese regime to begin a dialogue with the democratic opposition”.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in London that he will be writing to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, as well as leaders of China and the ASEAN, proposing an “economic initiative” in “support of recovery plan for Burma, conditional on progress with reconciliation and democracy”.
Britain, along with the US and the European Union, has been pressing China and India to prevail upon the Myanmar military junta to end its crackdown on pro-democracy protests that began in September.
The West has also called for tougher sanctions against the Myanmarese regime, which was reiterated by Brown in London today – a demand Mukherjee turned down in New York earlier this month.
India has expressed concern over the Myanmar situation and asked the military to expedite the process of national reconciliation and political reform. Mukherjee had described the bloodshed in Myanmar as “unacceptable”.
The British minister also said he will discuss “how we can work with Nepal to create conditions necessary to hold credible elections”.
Bilateral ties, including economic relations, between India and Britain also came at the talks.
Describing Britain’s relationship with New Delhi as “one of our most important and strongest”, he said his country had been at the “forefront in recognising India’s prominent position on the world stage and supporting India’s aspirations for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council”.