Myanmar and India sign natural gas deal

Agence France Presse

9 March 2006

Yangon: India and Myanmar agreed Thursday to consider ways of transporting natural gas from fields off western Myanmar to the energy-hungry giant next door, officials said.

The deal, along with two other pacts on satellite imaging and education, was signed after talks between visiting Indian President Abdul Kalam and junta leader Senior General Than Shwe in Yangon.

But India's top foreign ministry official Shyam Saran told reporters in Yangon that they did not discuss the house arrest of Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"It did not come up in the talks," he said.

Kalam's visit, the first by an Indian head of state to Myanmar, has focused on business interests between the world's largest democracy and its military-ruled neighbor.

India has been jockeying with China to tap Myanmar's natural gas reserves off the Arakan Coast, and is already involved in exploration projects in Myanmar waters.

India has been trying to negotiate a three-billion-dollar deal to run a pipeline from Myanmar and across Bangladesh to the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, but has failed to make any headway in the talks.

The agreement signed Thursday would also allow studies into running a much longer pipeline through northeast India, which borders Myanmar, or converting the gas to liquefied natural gas for shipping

China and Myanmar have already signed a deal to allow China to study building a pipeline from the Arakan Coast to its Yunnan province.

The satellite deal would allow Myanmar to use Indian satellite imagery, which could be applied to agricultural projects or to survey for minerals.

The third deal agreed to improve cooperation in Buddhist studies.

The rest of Kalam's trip aims at furthering business ties, including a dinner with the Chamber of Commerce on Friday before he leaves on Saturday.

The United States and European Union impose sanctions on Myanmar for its suppression of the pro-democracy movement. Despite the human rights concerns, India has sought to strengthen ties with Myanmar since the 1990s as it tries to compete with China for regional influence.

During US President George W. Bush's visit to India last week, he and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh deplored human rights abuses in Myanmar and called on all nations to seek Aung San Suu Kyi's release.

She has spent more than 10 of the past 16 years under house arrest.