India, Bangladesh discuss terrorism, trade, border

By IANS

Dhaka : India Monday raised its concerns about security, terrorism and illegal migration with Bangladesh even as it tried to address Dhaka's concerns about bridging trade imbalance to build "forward-looking" bilateral relations with its eastern neighbour.


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Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon began two-day foreign office talks with Bangladeshi counterpart Touhid Hossain and discussed a broad spectrum of bilateral issues including security, peaceful border management, cross-border migration, water management in common rivers and strengthening of economic and trade links.

A joint statement is expected at the end of the foreign office consultations – the first in over two years and the first since the Caretaker Administration (CA) assumed charge in Dhaka.

During his discussions with Hossain, Menon sought closer cooperation from Dhaka and pressed it for action against anti-India insurgents who are sheltering in Bangladesh.

Despite India's repeated requests, Bangladesh has yet to act against leaders of insurgent groups like Paresh Barua and Anup Chetia who continue to be holed up in Bangladesh.

Menon, however, assured his counterpart that India was seriously working towards resolving some trade-related issues and alluded to the unilateral gesture by New Delhi during the 14th SAARC summit to allow duty-free access of goods from the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) within the region.

An MoU between the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institutions (BSTI) and the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is expected to be signed after the talks so as to spur the export of Bangladeshi goods to India.

This is considered the first steps to remove non-tariff barriers, long demanded by Bangladesh to expand its market in India.

The whopping trade deficit, estimated to be over $2 billion, is a touchy issue with Dhaka and it is seeking to extract some concessions from New Delhi on this front.

Ahead of the talks, Hossain had set the positive tone, saying he looked forward to "a process of constructive and forward-looking engagement" with his counterpart.

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