Myanmar state counselor leaves for visit to India

Myanmar's State Counselor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi left here for an official visit to India on Sunday, according to official sources.

During her visit, Suu Kyi will first attend the BIMSTEC-Retreat and BRICS-BIMSTEC Leaders' Outreach Summit to be held in the west Indian state of Goa.

BIMSTEC, known as Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, groups Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan.

BRICS comprises five major emerging national economies - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

After the summit, she will continue to pay a three-day visit to India aimed at strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries.

Suu Kyi's first trip to India since her National League for Democracy (NLD) government took office on April 1 came less than two months after Myanmar President U Htin Kyaw's state visit to the neighbor in August.

Suu Kyi will call on President Pranab Mukherjee and have meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Indian official sources said.

According to Myanmar official figures, India's investment in Myanmar amounted to 732.64 million U.S. dollars as of the end of August, the 9th in Myanmar's foreign investors line-up since late 1988 when the country opened to such investment.

Bilateral trade between the two countries reached 1.711 billion U.S. dollars in the 2015-16 fiscal year.

The two countries expect to increase their bilateral trade to 10 billion U.S. dollar by 2020. Endit