Burma and Vietnam sign pact on petroleum cooperation

The "strategic cooperation in oil and gas" agreement was signed Tuesday between Burma Energy Planning Department director-general Soe Myint and PETROVIETNAM chief executive officer Tran Ngoc Canh, said The New Light of Burma.

The signing was witnessed by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung who was in Burma's new capital of Naypyitaw Tuesday to discuss bilateral relations with Burma's military regime.

While in Naypyitaw, 350 kilometres north of the old capital of Yangon, Dung met with Burma Acting Prime Minister Lieutenant General Thein Sein to discuss "matters on mutual cooperation and further cementing of friendly ties between the two countries," said Burma's state-run media.

Both Vietnam and Burma are members states of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean). Dung is on tour of the Asean region that has already taken him to the Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore and will end in Brunei.

//(Deutsche Presse-Agentur/DPA)