Tuesday, March 14 2006 15:40 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mauritius: Stopping short of demanding release of the Myanmarese pro-democracy leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi, President A P J Abdul Kalam today (Mar 14 2006) said India was interested in her well being and advocated estabishment of democracy in the military-ruled country.

"India is interested in the well being of Aung Sang Suu Kyi. India had a lot of friendship with her father. The people here are interested in her well being," he told sources on board his Special Aircraft 'Tanjore' while returning home this morning after a six-day two-nation tour of Myanmar and Mauritius.

To a specific question whether the demand for Suu Kyi's release came up during his talks with the military ruler Senior General Than Shwe, the President, whose visit to Myanmar was the first ever by an Indian Head of State, parried a direct reply.

He only said Myanmar has drawn up a roadmap for establishment of democracy and "naturally it is there."

Kalam said that during his talks with Than Shwe, the military ruler had told him he would take up India's suggestions on democracy and about the welfare of Suu Kyi and discuss the issues with his team and "come back to us."

Reflecting India's keenness on establishment of a multi-party democracy in that country, Kalam said he had assured Than Shwe that New Delhi would offer all institutional support to Myanmar in this direction.

He said India would do everything needed to push for parliamentary system as far as possible.

Cooperation of Energy and Information and Communication

Summing up his visit to the "friendly neighbour" and the "close relative", a coinage used by Kalam for Myanmar and Mauritius respectively, the President said the hallmark of his tour was cooperation in the fields of energy and Information and Communication.

He said while Myanmar was the 'Gateway to East Asia", Mauritius was the 'Gateway to Africa' and added that MoUs were inked with both the nations in the area of hydrocarbon exploration.

Energy-starved India has high stakes in Myanmar's gas and oil reserves and hydrocarbons present in the Exclusive Economic Zone in Mauritius off shore.

During Kalam's three-day stay in Myanmar, an MoU was signed on opitcal fibre connectivity and it was agreed that there would be regular exchange of Buddhist scholars beetwen the two countries besides cooperation in Information and Telecommunication.

India offered assistance in several projects in Myanmar and decided to give a thrust to the trilateral India-Myanmar-Thailand highway so that it could be started early, Kalam said and added that it was decided to raise bilateral trade volume to two billion USD in the next three years from one billion USD now.

In Mauritius, the President, who was the Chief Guest at the National Day Celebrations at Port Louis, said India offered all assistance to the island nation to tide over the new economic challenges it faced in the sugarcane and textile sectors in the post-WTO regime. An agreement was also signed on Pan-African e-Network Project for enhanced cooperation in Information and Communication Technologies.