NEW DELHI: Foreign Secretary Shyam Sharan told a press conference on Tuesday that President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's visit to Myanmar was not prompted by rivalry between India and China to gain influence over the region. ``It will not be accurate to describe the visit by an Indian head of state to Myanmar after a long time in these terms. There are very good reasons why India must remain engaged with Myanmar,'' he said while speaking to newspersons on Mr. Kalam's six-day visit to Myanmar and Mauritius which begins on Wednesday.

India's engagement with Myanmar came up during the talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and U.S. President George Bush with India explaining the importance of a close relationship between the two neighbours. Mr. Saran said while remaining engaged with Myanmar, India in meetings with its top leadership had made known its views on the current situation in that country.

On the prolonged detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, Mr. Saran conceded she was respected in India and had a certain international standing. ``Her welfare and release would be very helpful in the process of [restoring] democracy,'' he said.

Myanmar was important to India as it shared a long land border with four ``sensitive'' States in the North East, both countries were involved in energy exploration on Myanmar's coastline opposite India's eastern sea board and Myanmar could be India's bridgehead to the South-East Asian nations. Mr. Kalam's visit will touch on most of the ongoing projects in this regard.

Natural gas

India was discussing an agreement for evacuation of natural gas that will be produced in the exploration blocks.

``It could be a pipeline directly to the North East or the gas could be converted into liquid natural gas for transportation by sea. Some agreement on this could be struck,'' said Mr. Saran.

The economy and viability of projects in the North East would improve with the development of a multi-modal project for reviving shipping links from the ancient port of Sitwe to Kolkata and Chennai on one side and use of river and highway to enter into Mizoram on the other.

The President would also discuss the setting up of a ground station in Myanmar to receive data from Indian satellites for use in crop forecasting.

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