Jaishankar, Thai, Myanmar Ministers discuss trilateral highway

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday met his Myanmar counterpart Than Swe and discussed expediting projects, especially the India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway, and underlined the importance of ensuring peace and stability in the border areas.
Jaishankar, who arrived here from Indonesia on Saturday on an official visit, also met Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai.

“Our discussions focused on connectivity initiatives that have a larger regional significance. These will also be discussed at the MGC meeting this afternoon. Stressed the importance of expediting projects that have faced challenges in the recent past, especially the India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway,” Jaishankar said in a tweet after his meeting with Myanmar foreign minister on the sidelines of the Mekong Ganga Cooperation (MGC) meeting.

On Saturday, Jaishankar said that the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway had been a “very difficult project” because of the situation in Myanmar and that it was the government’s priority to find ways to resume it.

India, Thailand and Myanmar are working on about 1,400-km-long highway that would link the country with Southeast Asia by land and give a boost to trade, business, health, education and tourism ties among the three countries.