India may announce a hike in financial assistance aimed at facilitating the repatriation of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj pays a two-day official visit to Myanmar next week.

Raveesh Kumar, spokesperson of the External Affairs Ministry, told the media on Thursday that some key agreements covering diverse aspects of bilateral relations are to be signed during Swaraj's visit to Myanmar on May 10-11.

India believes that normalcy in Rakhine state “will be restored with the return of the displaced persons,” Kumar said adding the socio-economic development of Rakhine State was also a key factor.

India had announced on December 21 last year a development assistance of $25 million for Myanmar's Rakhine State, from where thousands of Rohingyas crossed over to Bangladesh following “ethnic cleansing” there.

The amount, which will be spent over five years, was an “indicative figure” and depended on the actual requirement and utilisation, leaving scope for an increase, officials said.

When then Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar visited Myanmar in December last year, he and Myanmar's Deputy Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement U Soe Aung signed a MoU on Rakhine State Development Programme under which India proposes to take up, among others, a project to build prefabricated housing in Rakhine so as to meet the immediate needs of returning Rohingyas.

The repatriation of Rohingyas, for which Bangladesh and Myanmar signed an accord in January this year, has remained a non-starter so far. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, during a meeting with a visiting UNSC team on Rohingyas, had wanted India, China, Russia and Japan to bring more pressure on Myanmar to take back the refugees.

During her forthcoming visit, Swaraj  will review with Myanmar leaders the progress made in implementing the decisions taken during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip to that country in September last year, Kumar said.