PM Modi departs for India after concluding two-day bilateral visit to Myanmar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday departed for India from the Yangon International Airport after concluding his two-day bilateral visit to Myanmar.

Before the departure, the Prime Minister visited Bogyoke Aung San Museum in Yangon with Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi .

Prime Minister Modi on Thursday paid a visit to the reverred Shwedagon Pagoda and Kali Bari Temple in Yangon and offered prayers.

The Prime Minister signed the guest book at the Shwedagon Pagoda. With a gold-plated, 99-meter tall (325 feet) spire encrusted with diamonds and rubies, the pagoda towers over Yangon and is the spiritual center of the Burmese Buddhism.

Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government relocated the capital to the purpose-built city of Naypyidaw in central Myanmar.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Modi visited the famous Ananda Temple in Myanmar's ancient city, Bagan, which was damaged in a tremor in 2016 and is being renovated with India's assistance.

India and Myanmar signed 11 agreements in a range of sectors, including one on maritime security cooperation, to further strengthen their multifaceted partnership

The Archaeological Survey of India has carried out structural conservation and chemical preservation work of this temple. The restoration work is being carried out after the damage due to an earthquake last year.

The temple, one of the surviving masterpieces of the Mon architecture, is believed to have been built around 1105 by King Kyanzittha, one of the greatest Burmese monarchs.

India and Myanmar have agreed that terrorism remains one of the major threats to peace and stability in the region. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Myanmar's State Counsellor Suu Kyi discussed the security situation prevailing along the long land border and maritime boundary.

The Prime Minister said his government has always taken bold and tough decisions aimed at people's welfare as for them, the nation is above everything else.

"For us, the nation is above everything else. That is why we have always taken bold and tough decisions aimed at people's welfare," Prime Minister Modi said, while addressing the Indian community in Yangon at the Thuwunna Stadium.

Emphasising Myanmar's value in India's freedom struggle, Prime Minister Modi said that this is the sacred land from where Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose gave the slogan of 'give me blood and I will give you freedom'.

He appreciated the role of the Indian diaspora in contributing towards to the development of wherever they have settled, adding that they also kept in touch with their roots.

The Prime Minister also said Yoga was globally recognised due to efforts of the Indians living in different parts of the world.