'Hope upcoming polls will be fair and inclusive': PM Modi to Myanmar's Gen Hlai on SCO sidelines

PM Modi with Myanmar Senior General Min Aung Hlaing during a meeting, on the sidelines of the SCO Summit, in Tianjin, China. (Image: PMO via PTI)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with the acting President of Myanmar Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in  China's Tianjin on Sunday.

According to a statement my ministry of external affairs, PM Modi noted that India attaches importance to its ties with Myanmar as part of its Neighbourhood First, Act East and Indo-Pacific policies.

"The two leaders reviewed bilateral ties and discussed the way forward on several aspects of bilateral cooperation, including development partnership, defence and security, border management and border trade issues," the statement said.

According to MEA, PM Modi also expressed the hope that the forthcoming elections in Myanmar will be held in a fair and inclusive manner involving all stakeholders.

"He underlined that India supports a Myanmar-led and Myanmar-owned peace process, for which peaceful dialogue and consultation is the only way forward," the MEA said.

The two leaders had last met this April on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC Summit in Bangkok.

Myanmar's military government has announced that long-promised elections will begin on December 28, the first polls in the war-torn country in nearly five years. A 2021 coup unseated an elected civilian government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Meanwhile, PM Modi today in Tianjin also met Chinese Communist Party top leader Cai Qi. Sharing the details of the meeting on X, MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, "PM @narendramodi met Politburo Standing Committee Member Mr. Cai Qi in Tianjin, China. Building on, and in line with, the leaders' meeting today, they touched on bilateral economic, political and people-to-people exchanges between India and China."