India, Myanmar sign trade pact

Taking bilateral cooperation to a higher plane, India and Myanmar on Thursday signed three agreements in petroleum, space and education sectors in the presence of President A P J Abdul Kalam and chairman of the State Peace and Development Council Senior General Than Shwe in Yangon.

The Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the petroleum sector pertains to transport of natural gas from Arakan port of Myanmar either through a pipeline via North East or Bangladesh.

India has been pressing to build a pipeline from Myanmar through Bangladesh to meet a yawning energy supply gap.

The option of converting the gas into liquified natural gas for shipping it is also under consideration as it would be cost-effective, considering that the distance was not too much.

Another MoU on cooperation in Buddhist studies was inked by foreign secretary Shyam Saran and Brig General Thura Aung Ko, deputy minister for Religious Affairs, Myanmar.

A framework agreement on mutual cooperation in the field of remote sensing was concluded for setting up of a ground station in Myanmar.

The station will receive remote sensing data from IRS satellite for various uses including agriculture purposes like survey of soil and minerals.

The documents were signed on the second day of the three-day visit of Kalam to Myanmar, the first-ever by an Indian head of state.

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