India, Burma Meet on Non-traditional Security Issues

Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)

February 11, 2004

A senior officials' meeting on combating terrorism and transnational crime in India and Burma ended today.

The two-day meeting, the first of its kind, was attended by a visiting Burmese delegation led by U Win Mra, director general of the International Organizations and Economics Department of Burma's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the India team led by Meera Shankar, additional secretary of India's Ministry of External Affairs.

The participants discussed and exchanged views on security in their immediate neighborhood, according to a press release issued today by India's Ministry of External Affairs. Both parties agreed to strengthen bilateral cooporation on counter-terrorism through exchange of information and intelligence, capacity building and mutual legal cooperation.

Moreover, both countries will work together to curb illegal drug trafficking, psychotherapic substances, small arms and light weapons.

This meeting was the process agreed upon by Senior General Than Shwe,  head of Burma's ruling military junta, when he visited India last October and signed the "Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the Field of
Non-Traditional Security Issues," including arms smuggling, terrorism, money laundering, drug trafficking, organized crime, international economic crime and cyber crime.

The second meeting is to be held in Rangoon. North East India bordering Burma is home to more than 200 ethnic and tribal groups and several insurgencies.