New Delhi, Oct 14: Myanmar president Thein Sein began the official leg of his visit to India with a ceremonial reception at the Presidential Palace in New Delhi on Friday.
Thein Sein arrived in the Indian capital on Thursday.
Accompanied by a large ministerial delegation, Sein held talks with top Indian leaders on Friday to consolidate the growing economic and political ties between the two countries.
India shares a land border with Myanmar which is more than 1,600 kilometreslong.
Since taking office in March this year, Thein Sein has launched a series of economic reforms in Myanmar and eased limits on freedom of speech by relaxing censorship and unblocking banned websites.
He also has opened dialogue with Myanmar's most prominent pro-democracy campaigner, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, while calling for peace with ethnic minority rebel groups.
A further decision to grant amnesty to more than six thousand political prisoners is regarded by many critics as a bid to appease the international community.
According to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, only an estimated 10 per cent have so far been freed.
Failure to release a significant number could hamper the country's efforts to burnish its human rights record and win a lifting of Western economic and political sanctions.
According to official statistics, Myanmar-India bilateral trade crossed one billion US dollars in 2009-10, with India standing as Myanmar's fourth largest trading partner after Thailand, Singapore and China.
Myanmar exports mostly agricultural and forestry products to India while it imports semi-finished steel and pharmaceutical products.
Myanmar is also emerging as an important partner in India's quest for energy security.
Hundreds of pro-democracy activists from Myanmar held a protest march ahead of Thein Sein's arrival in the Indian capital on Thursday.
Thein Sein's visit is his first to India after assuming the presidency earlier this year.
More than two million people of Indian origin live in Myanmar and India has established deep economic and military ties with Myanmar over the past decade.
Thein Sein, a retired senior army officer who took office in March, has launched a series of economic reforms and eased limits on freedom of speech by relaxing censorship and unblocking banned websites.
He has also started a dialogue with pro-democracy campaigner and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, made calls for peace with ethnic minority rebel groups and suspended a controversial China-backed hydropower dam project after a public outcry.
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