Myanmar Leader Leaves for China VisitVice-Chairman of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) General Maung Aye left Monday for a week-long goodwill visit to China at the invitation of Chinese Vice-President Hu Jintao.Maung Aye's main entourage includes Myanmar SPDC Third Secretary Lieutenant-General Win Myint, Deputy Prime Minister Lieutenant-General Tin Hla, Foreign Minister U Win Aung and eight other ministers of Agriculture and Irrigation, Industry-1, Industry-2, Livestock and Fisheries, Science and Technology, Electric Power, Information, Telecommunication, Posts and Telegraphs. Seeing off Maung Aye at the Yangon International Airport were Myanmar SPDC Chairman and Prime Minister Senior-General Than Shwe, SPDC First Secretary Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, Second Secretary Lieutenant-General Tin Oo, Deputy Prime Ministers Vice-Admiral Maung Maung Khin and Lieutenant-General Tin Tun and other government officials. Chinese ambassador Liang Dong was also present. China and Myanmar are friendly neighbors linked by mountains and rivers and the two peoples enjoy traditional "paukphaw" (fraternal) friendship. China and Myanmar jointly advocated the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, based on which the two countries' friendly and cooperative ties have continuously consolidated and developed. In recent years, there have been frequent exchanges of visits by leaders of the two countries. Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee Li Ruihuan, Vice-Premier Wu Bangguo, State Councilors Luo Gan and Ismail Amat have visited Myanmar, while Myanmar SPDC Chairman and Prime Minister Than Shwe, SPDC First Secretary Khin Nyunt and Foreign Minister U Win Aung have also travelled to China for visits. These visits have pushed ahead the development of the two countries' bilateral ties. |
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