The four-day Colombo visit of Than Shwe, Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, is a reciprocal one to Nay Pyi Taw by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in June this year. Both visits happened in the same year to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
Than Shwe's visit also represents the one of a head of state of Myanmar to Sri Lanka after a lapse of more than four decades.
Colombo sources said the most significant aim of Than Shwe's visit is to pay homage to the temples of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Sri Lanka's central town of Kandy and the top leader will also visit Sri Lanka's ancient capital of Anuradhapura during his stay in the Indian Ocean island.
During his June Myanmar visit, Rajapaksa met with Than Shwe and had talks with Prime Minister General Thein Sein on promotion of cooperation in the two countries' bilateral ties, religious affairs, trade, economy, education, agriculture, forestry, hotels and tourism and transport as well as regional cooperation and mutual cooperation in international arena.
On that occasion, Myanmar and Sri Lanka signed an agreement on mutual exemption of visas for diplomatic passport and service passport holders of the two countries and a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in tourism.
Moreover, the Myanmar government made a cash donation of 50,000 U.S. dollars as a humanitarian assistance to the Sri Lankan government for that country's internally displaced people in the northern part, while Sri Lanka helped establish a village, called Mitta, in Myanmar's cyclone-hit Kungyangon township in Yangon division.
Sri Lanka has so far injected one million U.S. dollars' investment in Myanmar since 1988, Myanmar statistics show.
The two countries set up the Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) in 1996.
In early August this year, the JCBC met for the second time in Sri Lanka's Kandy city.
Meanwhile, indirect air link exists between the two countries via Bangkok with Sri Lankan Airlines connecting the Bangkok flights of the Myanmar Airways International (MAI) and the Thai Airways International (TG) and transiting passengers from Yangon to Colombo.
In November last year, Myanmar agreed with Sri Lanka to establish direct air and sea links to effectively boost bilateral trade ties between the two countries as proposed by Sri Lanka.
Currently, trade between Myanmar and Sri Lanka is transacted through Singapore.
Myanmar and Sri Lanka, which established diplomatic relations on June 7, 1949, have enjoyed cultural and religious ties since the 11th century.
Both Myanmar and Sri Lanka are members of the subregional grouping of Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) which also comprises Bangladesh, India and Thailand.
Myanmar remains as an observer of the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation
