DHAKA: Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Md. Shahidul Haque expressed concern regarding the discerning fall of water flow in Teesta to Bangladesh in the recent months.
He also reiterated the hope of early conclusion of the Teesta Water Sharing Agreement.
The foreign secretary of Bangladesh expressed the concern during bilateral talks with his Indian counterpart Mrs. Sujatha Singh at the Indian Ministry of External Affairs on the second day of his visit to India.
External Publicity Wing of Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the matter through a press release.
India Foreign Secretary informed that they are in the process of building necessary domestic consensus for signing the Teesta agreement. On the issue of fall of Teesta water flow to Bangladesh, she said that they are taking it very seriously and have already asked their concerned technical people to immediately look into it.
Teesta remains a contentious issue of India-Bangladesh relationship as their governments failed to ink a deal on sharing its water mainly due to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee`s strong resistance.
Besides, the Foreign Secretaries happily admitted about the best relations under the guidance of the two Prime Ministers.
Indian Foreign Secretary stated that significant progress has been achieved in implementation of the 2011 Joint Statement and 2010 Joint Communiqué.
Bangladesh Foreign Secretary said that the bilateral relations between the two countries have undergone positive transformation in the past five years and have reached an unprecedented height.
These developments have been immensely contributing to the improvement of quality of lives and livelihood of millions of people of both the countries.
The Foreign Secretaries discussed the entire gamut of bilateral relations including security, border management, trade & investment, power, water, connectivity, people-to-people contact, regional, sub-regional and international cooperation. Both the sides noted the remarkable increase in trade and investment between the two countries. They vowed to work more
closely for trade facilitation such as development of infrastructure, removal of non-tariff and para-tariff barriers and mutual recognition of standards and certificates. Both sides emphasized on taking enabling steps to enhance connectivity in the region. In this context, they expressed their commitment to expedite the work of coastal shipping connectivity.
Bangladesh Foreign Secretary also appreciated that the bill for ratification of Land Boundary Agreement by India had been tabled in the Rajya Sabha and expressed hope that it would soon be adopted.
Later in the afternoon, Bangladesh Foreign Secretary met the Petroleum & Natural Gas Secretary of India and discussed issues of mutual interest and benefit and underscored the need to explore new areas of cooperation for greater energy security between the two countries.
He also paid courtesy calls on the External Affairs Minister of India and the National Security Adviser.
BDST: 1014 HRS, MAR 21, 2014
