Aung San Suu Kyi keen to visit India

New Delhi, July 28 (IANS) Myanmar State Counsellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi has expressed her desire to visit India during a meeting with Minister of State for External Affairs V.K. Singh.

"Aung San Suu Kyi enquired about EAM’s (External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's) health and mentioned that she is looking forward to visiting India,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said in his weekly media briefing here on Thursday.

Giving details of the meeting that was held on July 26 in Vientiane, Laos, on the sidelines of various Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)-related meetings, Swarup said that Suu Kyi and Singh spoke about India's assistance to Myanmar in various areas.

“The Minister of State conveyed Government of India's willingness to strengthen democratic institutions in Myanmar particularly with respect to training parliamentarians and to share our experience on federalism, centre-state relations, distribution of power and resources between centre and state and political reconciliation,” he said.

He said that they also discussed the Myanmar government's support for India’s development projects such as the Kaladan multi-modal transport project and the Asian trilateral highway.

“There was a specific discussion on India providing help to Myanmar on rubberised roads for which a concept paper has been shared,” the spokesperson said, adding that Suu Kyi conveyed Myanmar's interest in development projects and the role of Indian consultants in these.

“She also conveyed an interest in learning from India’s experience in solar power and use of technology for using recycled waste matter in construction of roads,” Swarup said.

Suu Kyi led the National League for Democracy to a majority victory in the first openly contested elections in 25 years in November last year.

On April 6 this year, the 70-year-old Nobel peace laureate assumed charge as State Counsellor as she was constitutionally barred from the presidency after becoming the country's first female foreign minister on March 30.