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SPDC FM to be in Singapore
- Subject: SPDC FM to be in Singapore
- From: moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 19:21:00
FEB 16 1999
Myanmar ForeignMinister to visit Singapore
STR.Singapore
REGIONAL, ECONOMIC ISSUES TO BE DISCUSSED
MYANMAR Foreign Minister Win Aung arrives in Singapore on
Thursday for a two-day visit, his first to the Republic
since taking up the
post last November. His visit, at the invitation of
Foreign Affairs Minister
S. Jayakumar, is in keeping with the tradition of
newly-appointed
ministers from the grouping calling on their counterparts
shortly after
taking office.
The 54-year-old Mr Win Aung, who served in Myanmar's
Embassy in
Singapore as charge d' affaires from 1988 to 1990, will
be here as part of
a four-nation swing which will also take him to Brunei,
Indonesia and
Thailand.
He will call on Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and Senior
Minister Lee
Kuan Yew on Friday and have talks with Professor
Jayakumar on
bilateral and regional issues, the Foreign Affairs
Ministry said in a
statement yesterday. Talks on bilateral economic
relations have also
been scheduled with officials of the Trade and Industry
Ministry and the
Trade Development Board. Singapore is Myanmar's largest
trading
partner and is, cumulatively, its biggest foreign
investo,r with US$1.5
billion (S$2.5 billion) invested in the country as of
November last year.
Mr Win Aung's visit, first announced by the official
Myanmar News
Agency, comes at a time when Asean and the European Union
have
reached an impasse over Yangon's participation at next
month's meeting
of Asean and EU ministers in Berlin.
The EU has refused to grant visas to, and has barred
visits by
high-ranking Myanmar officials, citing what the grouping
sees as
Yangon's poor human rights record. Asean argues that it
cannot allow a
member of the grouping to be represented at a different
level.
While the EU -- Britain, Denmark and The Netherlands in
particular --
maintained its stance, Asean has noted that there was no
European
objection to the presence of Myanmar's Foreign Minister
at other fora,
such as Asean's post-ministerial conference dialogue.
Thailand, which coordinates Asean's dialogue with the EU,
has been
hopeful about a resolution, failing which the Berlin
meeting cannot be
held -- as was the case when a scheduled Asean-EU
meeting in
Bangkok last month was cancelled.