President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar U Min Aung Hlaing during his official visit to India, answers questions of the Doordarshan (DD India News) at a news interview Q: Mr.

President, you chose India as your first foreign destination.

India and Myanmar are the countries having social and cultural interconnections.

Your Excellency, how will you define the relations between the two countries? A: The program of my visit is to attend the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA) Summit, to be sponsored by India.

Unfortunately, the summit was postponed due to the outbreak of Ebola virus in Africa.

In connection with this meeting, it has also been a long time since I last visited India, which was in 2019.

Through bilateral negotiations, both sides arranged an official visit for me to attend the meeting in India.

The meeting was postponed, but I came to India as this official visit program remained unchanged.

India is a country that has a long history of friendship and relations with Myanmar.

The bilateral relations are through many channels including people-to-people relations and government-to-government relations.

My first visit to India was in 2010, followed by a number of visits to the country.

As I assumed that the visit to India would be worthwhile, I made this trip a reality.

Q: Your Excellency, you have visited the holy Maha Bodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya.

Previously, you have mentioned about the many P2P relations.

So, do you assume Bodh Gaya as the core of P2P relations and interconnections? A: Of course, I assume.

Buddhism spread to Myanmar from India.

Bodh Gaya is the place where Buddha attained enlightenment.

As a large majority of the people in Myanmar are Buddhist, they deeply revere Buddhism.

Every Myanmar venerates Buddhism, and they also solemnly regard Bodh Gaya as a sacrosanct place.

I have been to the holy site four times.

Every time I visited India, I made the Bodh Gaya pilgrimage trip a reality.

As the holy place was on my way to India from Nay Pyi Taw, I made an arrangement to visit Bodh Gaya on 30 May.

What is more astonishing was that the 30 May was the fullmoon day of the month of Nayon in the Myanmar Calander.

It was an incredibly unique fullmoon day, and we all believed that we achieved special merits.

So, when it comes to Buddhism, Bodh Gaya is a vitally important place for the bilateral relations between the two countries.

President, please elaborate on your meeting with Prime Minister Modi.

Can you describe the main objectives of the discussions? A: We discussed a wide range of issues at the meeting.

The promotion of economic cooperation and trade between the two countries was included in the objectives of my visit.

We discussed the said topics.

Additionally, we identified the possible areas where India could invest in Myanmar and the areas that were suitable for Myanmar to learn the developments of India.

A broad array of other sectors including education, health, and defence fields, and issues on maritime security, border areas, and agricultural business.

We were able to cover multiple sectors during the talks for over two hours that would yield successful results.

President, you have just described the discussions on the establishment of economic cooperation between the two countries.

Currently, the annual volume of trade between India and Myanmar is just around US$-2 billion, while India is included in the largest trading partners of Myanmar.

So, what were the principal topics of the economic forum Your Excellency had held with India businesspersons.

A: India is one of the largest trading partners of Myanmar, with its bilateral trade with us exceeding US$-2 billion.

The volume of Myanmar’s exports to India is larger than the amount of goods imported to Myanmar from India.

I explained about our plans for the goods we buy from India.

For example, matters relating to extension of Indian exports including iron and steel, medicines, textiles.

I told the Indian entrepreneurs that we would buy those goods more.

I also invited them to invest in the production industry of Myanmar and distribute their goods in our neighbour such as Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, in addition to the Myanmar market.

They can have access to other markets, apart from Myanmar.

Myanmar has a population of around 50 million, and if that of the neighbours is added, the figure will reach near 200 million.

So, they can have a market of nearly 200 million consumers.

I encouraged them to distribute their goods in the said market.

Many of them were interested in my suggestions.

The main aim was trade pro-motion.

You said that the trade volume was about US$ -2 billion.

We set the target of the bilateral trade volume at US$- 3 billion, and that is the first phase.

In the near future, we will set the target of the second phase at US$- 5 billion.

And from there, we will gradually increase the trade volume.

Myanmar has many items to export to India.

Normally, Myanmar can extend its exports in beans, forest products, minerals, agricultural and livestock products, including rubber.

There are ways for the Indian entrepreneurs to get involved in the long staple cotton sector.

There are areas of bilateral cooperation, and their main attraction is mutual interest.

Trade depends on benefits.

Yesterday, I told them to concentrate more on increasing the trade volume rather than raising the profits and to sell in high volume with low profit margin.

Myanmar will also try to raise the sales and reduce the profit margin, and India should follow suit.

Of course, every merchant calculates the profit.

But they should take only a reasonable level of profit.

The main goal here is to raise the trade value and it is my chosen method.

Q: India is a country that follows the “Act East” policy and a “Neighbourhood First” policy in its foreign relations.

A clear example of this is that when a severe earthquake struck Myanmar in 2025, India was the first country to provide assistance.

This demonstrates its commitment.

In addition, India has been providing necessary support to help improve Myanmar’s defence capabilities as well.

So, based on these points, we would like to know how Mr President views India as a development partner for Myanmar.

A: In terms of development, there are many sectors.

In addition to what I mentioned earlier, there are also areas such as education and health.

Then there is the cultural sector as well—for example, the preservation of ancient heritage sites.

In industry as well, if we want long-term development, we need significant industrial growth.

There is also the IT sector.

India is one of the leading countries in IT.

Therefore, if we cooperate with India in IT, there will be many opportunities for us.

In Myanmar, we are also implementing an IT-related city development project called Yadanarpon Cyber City.

It is located in PyinOoLwin, which was formerly called Maymyo.

During the colonial period, it was well known as a resort town.

We are now redeveloping it as an IT city.

If Indian IT companies and professionals come and operate there, there will be many opportunities.

The scope is quite broad—it is a large-scale undertaking.

India is also a country with extensive experience in this field.

There-fore, I believe India can provide substantial support to us.

Q: Mr President, at present India has been implementing the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway project in Myanmar for many years.

In relation to this matter, we would like to know how you view this project.

In addition, we would also like to hear your perspective on regional connectivity and areas related to cross-border interaction and communication.

A: This India-Myanmar-Thai-land Trilateral Highway project, which connects Myanmar, Thailand, and India, is over 800 miles long.

The Thailand-Myanmar sections are already largely open and operational, with traffic already moving along them.

The Indian side, however, is the most important part.

In India, the connection from the North-east region linking Tamu and Moreh is a key gateway route.

This corridor is particularly important for India, first for enabling Indian products to enter Myanmar through border trade, and second for allowing Indian citizens to travel and engage with Myanmar via the border crossing.

These two aspects are the main priorities.

However, due to the security situation, there have been some difficulties in certain areas, and the project has been temporarily stalled.

We are now working to improve the security....