Anil Sasi
The Indian Express
November 12, 2014
Prime minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday met Mayanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on the sidelines of the Asean summit here during his maiden trip to Southeast Asia.
Suu Kyi called on Modi at 6 pm local time at the Park Royal Hotel, where the Indian delegation is staying. This was Modi’s first meeting with the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. During the course of the meeting, Suu Kyi, who has studied in India, said that she considered the country to be her “second home”.
The meeting comes at a time when Myanmar is in the middle of a national debate on whether to allow Suu Kyi to contest the 2015 parliamentary elections, from which she is barred due to a provision in the Constitution. Suu Kyi had last visited the country in November 2012.
In October, ahead of the ASEAN summit, Myanmar’s president U Thein Sein had held rare talks with Suu Kyi, who had repeatedly been rebuffed by the administration till then. After garnering international praise for helping steer the country from a military dictatorship to democracy, President Thein Sein’s nominally civilian government has, in recent weeks, been facing criticism in the wake of a stalemate in early political reforms and peace talks with ethnic rebels.
US President Barack Obama, who is slated to be here on Thursday for the East Asia Summit, will also meet Suu Kyi.
