India, Bangladesh agree to joint anti-terrorism fight
Dated 21/3/2006
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New Delhi: Edgy neighbors India and Bangladesh agreed on Tuesday to wage a joint battle against terrorism and correct a trade imbalance, during a Delhi visit by Bangladeshi Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia.
India accuses Bangladesh of harboring separatists active in its restive northeast, which is denied by Bangladesh.
India also blames Muslim Bangladesh of pushing illegal Bangladeshis into India through their porous border. Dhaka rejects this charge, but the issue has caused frequent gun battles between the two border security forces.
The South Asian neighbors are also facing Islamic militancy. Bangladesh was rocked by a series of blasts last year, while India still faces an Islamic revolt in Kashmir.
"Both sides agreed that India and Bangladesh are victims of terrorism and need to join hands in fighting this scourge," Indian foreign ministry spokesman, Navtej Sarna, said after talks between Khaleda and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Sarna said it was decided to have a "closer exchange of information" on this and step up meetings between senior security officials of both sides.
Later while speaking at a banquet hosted by Singh, Khaleda said her country was trying to "deepen democracy and combat extremism and terrorism" to ensure progress.
TRADE IMBALANCE
On trade, Sarna said India was "sensitive to Bangladesh's concerns" about a trade imbalance which stands at over $1 billion in India's favor annually.
In this context, India's Tata group's proposed $2.5 billion investment in Bangladesh was also mentioned.
"On this, the Bangladeshi side said they were examining various proposals. Certain matters need clarifications and they are waiting for those," Sarna said.
The Tata's proposed projects in power, steel, fertilizer and coal would constitute the largest single foreign investment ever in Bangladesh.
Talks between the Tata group and Dhaka stalled last month after negotiations over the price of natural gas, to be used in the projects, faltered.
The two sides also signed an agreement aimed at expanding trade ties and another on preventing illicit trafficking in narcotics drugs and psychotropic substances.
A new railway link was also agreed by the two nations.
New Delhi helped in creating Bangladesh in 1971 by militarily backing an independence struggle in what was then East Pakistan.
But in recent years, ties have deteriorated due to frequent border skirmishes and rise of radical Islam in Bangladesh.
Before Khaleda's first visit to India since she became prime minister for a second term in 2001, India's Border Security Force said it had detained 1,200 Bangladeshis this year.
They said this was a 30 percent jump in the number detained compared to the first eight weeks of 2005.
In the past four years, issues like these have strained the traditionally friendly ties between the much larger and more economically powerful India and impoverished Bangladesh.
(Additional reporting by Kamil Zaheer in New Delhi and Bappa Majumdar in Kolkata)
