Hwang Soonil |
Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The India’s relationship with Myanmar and South Korea can be taken ahead by working out jointly in myriad fields, feel delegates of Myanmar and South Korea who have come to attend the three-day 7th International Dharma Dhamma Conference organised by Sanchi University of Buddhist Indic Studies and India Foundation in Bhopal.
Buddhism keeps Myanmar and South Korea emotionally attached to India - the land of its origin.
Moe Kyaw Aung, Myanmar Ambassador to India, told Free Press that Myanmar and India enjoyed very good relations with each other. They can further strengthen their relations by jointly working in areas like investment, trade, cultural ties, academic collaboration.
Talking about warm relations between Myanmar and India, he said during time of Covid pandemic, India donated a few million doses of vaccines to Myanmar.
He admitted that like other countries of the world, the economy of Myanmar too was affected due to Covid pandemic and now was recovering.
Shedding light on Myanmar’s culture, he said 90 per cent of Myanmar population is Buddhist. The rest of the population is Hindus, Muslims and Christians. Myanmar culture is religiously more tolerant and people of all faiths live like a family.
Talking about steps taken by Myanmar to protect its culture, Buddhist literature, Pali language, he said,”Students from India go to Myanmar to study Pali and Buddhist literature. Many students from Myanmar come to India to study Buddhism.”
Hwang Soonil from College of Buddhism, Dongguk University, Seoul (South Korea), said, “For South Koreans, India is too far but in terms of Buddhism it is a very close country as India is a homeland to Buddhism.”
South Korea and India can make their relations more strong by working in areas like semiconductor, mobile phones, car manufacturing.
Talking about religion, he said that religion could be the major driving force for people to fight with each other but at the same time, religion could be also be used for reconciliation.
