Suu Kyi leaves for historic visit to India

YANGON - Myanmar opposition leader and parliamentarian Aung San Suu Kyi left here Monday evening for New Delhi via Bangkok on her first historic week-long visit to India as a follow-up of her foreign trips to Thailand, Europe and the United States during this year.

Suu Kyi will meet with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and address a ceremony in commemoration of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, according to the schedule released by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) Sunday.

The invitation to Suu Kyi for the Nehru memorial lecture was made by Singh when he met Suu Kyi in Yangon during his landmark visit to Myanmar in May.

Suu Kyi was given the Jawaharlal Nehru award for International Understanding in 1992 by the Indian government when she was under house arrest by the previous military government.

Besides meeting with Indian Vice-President, Suu Kyi will visit to the Indian Parliament and meet with the Speaker, followed by a visit to Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi where she graduated with a degree in politics.

Before graduation, Suu Kyi studied at the Convent of Jesus and Mary School.

Suu Kyi's late mother Daw Khin Kyi was Myanmar Ambassador to India in 1960.

Suu Kyi last visited India in 1987 before she returned to Myanmar to look after her then ailing mother and moved into Myanmar's political arena.

In May, Singh paid a three-day state visit to Myanmar, bringing bilateral relations between India and Myanmar to a new high.

During Singh's visit, the first by an Indian prime minister in 25 years after Rajiv Gandhi, a package of 12 accords, which include two agreements and 10 memorandums of understanding (MoUs), were signed which included India's extension of a $500 million' credit line to Myanmar.