Beijing : Setting aside protocol, Chinese President Xi Jinping today met Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and asked her to take a long term view of the Sino-Myanmar ties which faced turbulence after the fall of the military junta which had close ties with the communist giant.
“China and Myanmar are close, friendly neighbours,” Xi told 69-year-old Suu Kyi, who arrived here on a five-day visit, heading a delegation of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party to open a “new dialogue” with the ruling Communist of Party of China (CPC). “China always looks at the China-Myanmar relationship from a strategic and long-term perspective,” Xi, the general secretary of the ruling Communist party said and asked Myanmar’s political leaders to do the same regardless of domestic changes.
He proposed that the two sides continue to work together, and honour the bilateral friendship and cooperation, which observers said an apparent reference to the stalled $ 3.6 billion Chinese-led Myitsone dam project over environmental concerns.
“We hope and believe that the Myanmar side will also maintain a consistent stance on China-Myanmar relationship and be committed to advancing friendly ties, no matter how its domestic situation changes,” he said. Suu Kyi said her party valued ties with China and admires China’s great development and achievements under CPC leadership.
This is the first time Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s democracy champion and winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, is visiting China after her release from house arrest in 2010 following 21 years of detention. Both sides say it was a fence mending mission as Beijing backed the military rule.
K J M Varma
