By IANS,
New Delhi : Rejecting competition with China, India Thursday opposed sanctions targeting Yangon, a day before the leaders of the two countries hold talks to expand security, economic and energy cooperation.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold wide-ranging talks with Myanmar President U. Thein Sein Friday that are expected to pitch their growing relations into a higher trajectory.
Thein Sein began his visit to India from Bodh Gaya Wednesday and visited neighbouruing Buddhist pilgrimage destinations, including Kushinagar, before touching down in Delhi in the evening.
Signalling Yangon’s keenness to expand ties with India across the spectrum, 13 senior ministers handling key portfolios are accompanying Thein Sein on this four-day visit to India, his first since the elections early this year that started the process of political and economic reforms in that country.
Several pacts in areas related to economy and infrastructure development are expected to be signed after the talks.
Ways to expand security cooperation, specially in the context of insurgents of India’s Northeast states suspected to be sheltering in the Myanmarese territory, will figure in the discussions.
“We have received assurances that the Myanmarese territory will not be allowed for insurgent activities directed against India,” Vishnu Prakash, the spokesperson of the external affairs ministry, told reporters here.
Ahead of the talks New Delhi rejected competition with Beijing amid Yangon’s fraying ties with Beijing over a mammoth dam.
“The relations between nations is not a zero sum game. There is room for everyone,” Prakash said here when asked whether India was seeking to counter China’s growing influence in the Southeast Asian country.
“We have an important relationship with Myanmar. And we have an important relationship with China. There is no competition,” said Prakash.
Prakash also underlined New Delhi’s opposition to sanctions that have been slapped by some Western countries against Myanmar on account of its perceived human rights violations.
“We have a distaste for sanctions. They do not serve the desired purpose and affect the people who are vulnerable,” said Prakash when asked whether New Delhi will use its leverage with Western countries to lift sanctions in the wake of reforms undertaken by the civilian government.