Jaishankar meets Myanmar, Thailand foreign ministers, discusses India-Myanmar-Thailand highway

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held a meeting with his Myanmar counterpart Than Swe on Sunday. During this, they discussed the expeditious completion of various projects, especially the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway, while underlining the need to ensure peace and stability in the border areas. Jaishankar had arrived in Bangkok on Saturday on an official visit to Thailand after visiting Indonesia. He also met Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai. After meeting the Myanmar Foreign Minister on the sidelines of the Mekong Ganga Cooperation (MGC) Mechanism meeting, he tweeted, “Our talks focused on connectivity initiatives, which have greater regional significance.

These will also be discussed during the MGC meeting in the afternoon. Emphasized the need to expeditiously complete the work of other projects, especially the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway Project, which has faced challenges in the past. The Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway has been a very difficult project and finding ways to restart it is a priority for the government. India, Thailand and Myanmar are working on a nearly 1,400 km long highway that will connect the three countries to Southeast Asia by land and boost trade, health, education and tourism ties between them. 70 percent of the work on the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway Project has been completed. This strategic highway project will connect Moreh in Manipur to Mae Sot in Thailand via Myanmar.

The construction of this project has been delayed. The government aimed to start operations on the highway by December 2019. In conversation with Than Swee, Jaishankar also underlined the need to ensure peace and stability in the border areas. “Recently there has been a lot of unrest and any escalation should be avoided,” he said. The foreign minister said, “expressed concern over human trafficking and drug trafficking in talks with Than Swee. Did. Appealed for strong cooperation from the concerned parties for the early return of the victims of trafficking. ”Jaishankar said that India, being a neighbor, is concerned about the humanitarian situation in Myanmar. He proposed people-centric initiatives to deal with the challenges.

The Foreign Minister said, “India supports the democratic transition process in Myanmar and underlines the need for peace and stability. We will closely coordinate our policy with ASEAN in this regard. Jaishankar later met Thailand’s Foreign Minister Pramudwinai. He tweeted, “Taking forward our talks from Jakarta. It was a pleasure to meet Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai today. Looking forward to the Mekong Ganga Cooperation (MGC) Mechanism meeting.” In Bangkok, Jaishankar will participate in the 12th meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Mekong Ganga Cooperation Mechanism and will also attend the program of Foreign Ministers of BIMSTEC countries.

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