New Delhi’s decade-old “look east” policy is poised to take another significant step with the first visit by an Indian head of state to military-ruled Myanmar next month.

During his three-day “goodwill visit” to India’s eastern neighbour beginning on March 8, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam will hold talks in Yangon with Myanmar’s military strongman, General Than Shwe, chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, and tour the city of Mandalay and Bagan’s famed Buddhist temples.

In India’s power structure, Mr Kalam is only a figurehead, so the visit will not result in the signing of any major agreement with the military junta.

But it is seen as an important political gesture from New Delhi towards its once-estranged neighbour, reciprocating Than Shwe’s path-breaking visit to India in October 2004.

“The goodwill visit is expected to contribute significantly to the further strengthening of bilateral relations,” a spokesman of the India’s External Affairs Ministry said.

Relations between India and Myanmar have not always been so cordial.

After the military crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in 1988, India became a vocal supporter of Aung San Suu Kyi, the popular leader now under house arrest in Yangon.

Ms Suu Kyi lived and studied in New Delhi as a teenager and counted among her friends the late Indian president K.R. Narayanan, who was married to a Burmese. But thanks to concern about China’s expanding influence in Myanmar, New Delhi did a U-turn in the mid-1990s.

It became equivocal about its support to Ms Suu Kyi, began mending fences with the generals and actively sought better economic and military ties with Yangon.

“Chinese domination increased every day in Myanmar, while India sat on the sidelines,” said Preet Malik, former ambassador to Yangon. “But since 1995 there has been a complete acceptance in New Delhi of the need to establish close relations with Myanmar no matter who is in power. President Kalam’s visit will only underscore this approach.”

But supporters of Ms Suu Kyi and the pro-democracy movement are unhappy, and have demanded the Indian president postpone his visit.

“Mr Kalam’s timing cannot be more inopportune,” said Suhas Chakma, director of the New Delhi-based Asian Centre for Human Rights. “While the United Nations appears to be taking Beijing’s help to persuade the military junta to undertake political reforms, we are afraid to even take the name of the lady.”

Besides counteracting the growing Chinese presence, India sees other compelling reasons for upgrading its links with Myanmar.

Military co-operation with Yangon is considered critical in reining in separatist groups in its remote northeastern states and based across the border in Myanmar, and putting a lid on the drugs trade.