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BSS-37
BANGLADESH-INDIA-TALK
Bangladesh seeks Teesta treaty with India soon as JCC meets virtually
DHAKA, Sept 29, 2020 (BSS) – Bangladesh sought early signing of Teesta water sharing treaty with India at the 6th Consultative Commission (JCC) meeting held virtually today.
“We have positive responses from the Indian side … we are always hopeful about signing of Teesta treaty,” foreign Minister Dr A K Abdul Momen said.
Momen said this to media at the Foreign Ministry here just after leading the Bangladesh side at the 6th Bangladesh-India JCC meeting held in a virtual platform where his Indian counterpart Dr. S. Jaishankar headed the Indian side.
The two foreign ministers discussed a wide range of issues, including water sharing, trade, line of credit, border killing, air bubble, pandemic and Rohingya crisis during the bilateral talk.
Apart from Teesta issue, they also discussed about the draft of potential water sharing treaty of six transboundary rivers — Monu, Muhuri, Khowai, Gomti, Dharla and Dudhkumar.
They reviewed the possibility of holding the stalled Joint River Commission (JRC) meeting between Bangladesh and India soon as the last such meeting was held in New Delhi in 2010.
“It ( JRC) will be held very soon,” Momen said.
Both sides also discussed the joint programmes for celebrating ongoing Mujib Borsho marking the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh in the next year.
The JCC also reviewed the projects under the Indian line of credit and Dhaka put emphasis on expediting the implementation process of the projects.
The meeting decided to form a high-level monitoring committee to regularly review the progress of the ongoing projects, the foreign minister said.
Momen said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Indian premier Narendra Modi are set to hold a virtual or in-person meeting depending on the pandemic situation in December.
Dhaka sought India’s enhanced cooperation over the Rohingya crisis while India reiterated its position on safe, secure and sustainable Rohingya repatriation.
“So, we requested for Indian cooperation here (resolution from UNSG),” Momen said, adding India today promised to cooperate Bangladesh over the issue.
The foreign minister said they agreed to bring down border killing to zero level. “We don’t want any death along the frontier and it’s a shame for friendly countries like Bangladesh and India,” he added.
During the Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla’s recent Dhaka visit, Bangladesh expressed deep concern at the rise in killings along the Indo-Bangladesh border by BSF Indian nationals during the first half of this year.
Bangladesh flagged that this is in violation of all bilateral agreements and that the Indian Border Security Force must be duly urged to exercise maximum restraint.
Following the concern, a DG-level meeting between Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and India’s Border Security Force (BSF) was held in the capital this month where the Indian side agreed to use lethal weapons as “last resort” to check criminal activities on frontiers.
During the 5th India-Bangladesh JCC meeting held on February 8 last year, four MoUs were signed to further strengthen the existing multifaceted cooperation between the two neighbouring countries.
BSS/ASG/TA/GA/1617 hrs