Myanmar’s pro-democratic Leader of Opposition and Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will visit India on the 13th of November. This is Suu Kyi’s first visit to India after she was released in 2010, following fifteen years of house arrest imposed by the military regime. Since her release, she has visited Thailand, Europe and the U.S. and this will be her fourth foreign visit. Responding to the Indian Prime Minister’s request made in Yangon during his visit in May 2012, she will deliver the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Lecture in New Delhi on the 14th of November. She is influenced by Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of non violence and is a recipient of the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1992 conferred by the Government of India. Suu Kyi’s relations with India can be traced to the time her mother Khin Kyi served as Myanmar’s Ambassador to India in 1960. During her time in India, Suu Kyi studied at Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi, in 1964.
According to India’s Ministry of External Affairs, Suu Kyi will visit her alma mater, Lady Sri Ram College, where she will interact with the faculty and students and also visit The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in Gurgaon. Besides her engagements in Delhi, she will be travelling to Bangalore where she will visit the Indian Institute of Science and the Infosys Campus. She is also scheduled to tour rural areas in Andhra Pradesh to gain a firsthand impression of the rural development and women’s empowerment programmes being undertaken in India.
Suu Kyi’s visit to India is expected to be followed by U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Myanmar on November 19th, who will be the first serving American President to visit the country. Following the political and economic transformation in Myanmar, the U.S. has suspended the sanctions imposed during the military rule.