China and Myanmar are set to sign deals to build a strategic bridge near their border and two hospitals in the Southeast Asian country, a Burmese official said yesterday, as Burmese Minister of Foreign Affairs Aung San Suu Kyi met government leaders in Beijing.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who is barred from the presidency by a junta-drafted constitution but holds several government posts, including that of foreign minister, arrived in China on Wednesday evening.
She met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) yesterday and is scheduled to meet President Xi Jinping (習近平) today, with the fate of a suspended Chinese-funded hydropower project in northern Myanmar in the balance.
Photo: Reuters
“We hope that China-Myanmar relations can be further consolidated and developed,” Aung San Suu Kyi told Li during their meeting.
“I believe your visit will give new impetus to the development of China-Myanmar relations,” Li said.
Neither gave any details of their talks.
The visit is Aung San Suu Kyi’s first major diplomatic foray as de facto leader, after a new government took power in April following her National League for Democracy’s sweeping election victory in November last year.
Earlier, an official at Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave some detail about projects due to be signed during the visit.
“Grant agreements will be signed on the construction of two hospitals and a bridge between the two sides,” ministry Deputy Director-General Aye Aye Soe said.
The two hospitals will be built in the nation’s two largest cities, Yangon and Mandalay, she said.
The bridge is aimed to improve transport and communication between the countries and will be built in Kunlong town, 32km from the border with China.
Kunlong is on the way to a border checkpoint and near the Kokang region where an ethnic Chinese rebel group fought Myanmar’s military last year.
Aye Aye Soe declined to give further details, including the terms of financing or the timeframe.
The China-funded US$3.6 billion Myitsone dam project was planned for the confluence of two rivers that form the Irrawaddy River, but has been stalled since 2011, when former Burmese president Thein Sein suspended the project amid widespread opposition on environmental grounds.
Beijing has been pushing for work to restart on the dam, which under the original plans would have sent 90 percent of its power to China.
A government commission reviewing the project — as well as several other proposed hydropower dams — is expected to report by Nov. 11.
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