India and Germany urged Burma's military rulers Tuesday to free all political prisoners and hold talks with the United Nations, following a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation.
India has come under intense international pressure to take action over the junta's repression of recent monk-led protests across Burma, largely because of the strong economic and military ties established between the two countries in the past decade.
"We jointly share the view that political prisoners have to be released. There has to be negotiations with the United Nations," German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in India for a four-day visit, said after meeting External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi.
Last week, Ibrahim Gambari, the UN's special envoy to Burma, urged India to break its silence over the Burmese military's violent response to the peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations. Gambari, who also visited Beijing, has suggested that Burma's two giant neighbors should take a lead in resolving the crisis.
India has said it is talking quietly to Burma—an approach that has upset critics at home and abroad who argue India's inaction makes it complicit in the brutal repression.
India shifted its policy from support for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi—who has been detained for 12 of the past 18 years—to one of engaging Burma's generals in the early 1990s, in part because of a desire to access Burma's large natural gas reserves.
New Delhi has never specified the extent of business ties between India and Burma. But even as the protests gathered momentum last month, India's petroleum minister, Murali Deora, was in Burma signing a US $150 million gas exploration deal.
India has also shown interest in securing the cooperation of Burma's military in containing several separatist groups fighting New Delhi's rule in the remote northeast, a region that borders Burma. India's military has said several insurgent groups launch attacks in India from bases across the border in Burma.
India has come under intense international pressure to take action over the junta's repression of recent monk-led protests across Burma, largely because of the strong economic and military ties established between the two countries in the past decade.
"We jointly share the view that political prisoners have to be released. There has to be negotiations with the United Nations," German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in India for a four-day visit, said after meeting External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi.
Last week, Ibrahim Gambari, the UN's special envoy to Burma, urged India to break its silence over the Burmese military's violent response to the peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations. Gambari, who also visited Beijing, has suggested that Burma's two giant neighbors should take a lead in resolving the crisis.
India has said it is talking quietly to Burma—an approach that has upset critics at home and abroad who argue India's inaction makes it complicit in the brutal repression.
India shifted its policy from support for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi—who has been detained for 12 of the past 18 years—to one of engaging Burma's generals in the early 1990s, in part because of a desire to access Burma's large natural gas reserves.
New Delhi has never specified the extent of business ties between India and Burma. But even as the protests gathered momentum last month, India's petroleum minister, Murali Deora, was in Burma signing a US $150 million gas exploration deal.
India has also shown interest in securing the cooperation of Burma's military in containing several separatist groups fighting New Delhi's rule in the remote northeast, a region that borders Burma. India's military has said several insurgent groups launch attacks in India from bases across the border in Burma.
