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February 06, 2009 03:41 IST
Myanmar pledged on Thursday that it would not allow its territory to be used by northeastern insurgents to target India as the neighbouring countries signed two pacts in industry and education sectors injecting a substantive economic content to their relations.
India raised the security issue stemming from the insurgents taking shelter in Myanmar which shares border with northeastern states of Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland as visiting Vice President Hamid Ansari held talks with Gen Maung Aye, the number two in this country's ruling military junta, sources said.
At the delegation-level talks between the two sides, which followed a brief one-to-one meeting between Ansari and
Gen Aye, the Myanmarese side acknowledged India's security concerns but conveyed that the insurgents would not be
permitted to use its territory to target India, they said.
Myanmar's assurance assumed significance as India, which had kept the military junta at arms length for a long time
after the 1988 crackdown on pro-democracy protests, changed track when it found its security interests in northeastern
states were in jeopardy.
Since India began engaging the Myanmarese military junta, there has been cooperation between security forces of the two countries in flushing out the northeastern insurgents.
The two countries inked a Memorandum of Understanding under which India will provide technical and financial assistance to set up an industrial training centre at Pakkoku in Myanmar to churn out skilled labour force, including electronic technicians, electricians, mechanists, welders and sheet metal workers.
The MoU was signed by the Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju and Myanmar Industry Minister Sowe Thein.
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