PM invites Suu Kyi to visit India

In the highest-level contact between India and Aung San Suu Kyi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today held talks with Myanmar's democracy icon here and invited her to visit his country which has a "long-standing association" with her.

Singh, the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Myanmar in 25 years, and Suu Kyi held discussions for 45 minutes. Accepting in principle the invite to visit India, 66-year-old Suu Kyi, Myanmar's opposition leader, said "I hope I will be able to take up the invitation not before too long".

Emerging from the meeting at Sedonia Hotel, where she called on Singh by sticking to protocol, Suu Kyi, clad in a violet "longyi" (sarong) and flip-fop, recalled her family's association with the Nehru family and said "her parents were great admirers of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and other Indian leaders but we were particularly close to Panditji, as I was taught to call him from a very young age".

The Prime Minister, during the joint media interaction with Suu Kyi, said "I have handed over to her an invitation letter from Mrs Sonia Gandhi to deliver the next Jawaharlal Nehru memorial lecture which is a very prestigious lecture".

The UPA Chairperson "has written an invitation letter to Madam (Suu Kyi) to do us the honour to deliver this lecture", Singh said. The Prime Minister paid rich compliments to Suu Kyi, saying her "struggle and her determination has inspired millions of people" all over the world. "We in India are very proud of the very long-standing association with her (Suu Kyi) and the members of her family."

Singh said he has conveyed to her "our very best wishes for the success of the noble endeavour in which she and her colleagues are engaged", a reference to Suu Kyi's struggle for pushing Myanmar to fuller democracy.