Myanmar has agreed to work with Bangladesh in managing the frontier to reduce border tension between the countries.
The neighbouring country is also likely to enhance security cooperation at the policy level to combat drugs and human trafficking and increase defence cooperation.
“Bangladesh proposed Myanmar to sign an instrument on security dialogue and cooperation and Myanmar has agreed to it,” said a senior official of the Foreign Ministry.
Dhaka sent a draft of the MoU on the security dialogue last September, but Myanmar responded positively just a few days back, he added.
Bangladesh has recently helped Myanmar in its flood relief operations and conducted operations against separatists.
“These activities and prudent diplomacy helped melting the ice, and trust between the two countries are building,” he said.
Myanmar will hold a parliamentary election in November. It is expected that the instrument will be signed during any ministerial visit.
The security dialogue deal has wide areas of cooperation including defence cooperation, border security management, terrorism financing, unauthorised crossing, human trafficking, prevention of smuggling, armed robbery and theft on ships, and unintentional maritime boundary crossing by fishermen.
Under the deal, a dialogue can be held at any level determined and agreed by both the parties. It will be held once in a year and if necessary it can be held more than one in a year.
When asked about border conflict, another senior Foreign Ministry official said the incidents occurr because of faulty border management.
“It does not mean that Bangladesh and Myanmar have negative policies towards each other,” he said.
For effective border management, both the countries agreed to sign an instrument on land border cooperation, he added.
It is different from security dialogue instrument as the land border cooperation mainly deals with field-level operations.
Under the deal, both the countries would appoint designated contact persons who would exchange real-time information about the border.
“It will smoothen border management at the field level,” he said.
The land border cooperation memorandum of understanding has been proposed by Myanmar. “Myanmar has similar arrangement with India and it is working very well,” the official added.
About the recent detainment of BGB Naik Abdur Razzak, he said: “We want to avoid such incidents in the future and for that we need deep engagement at the field-level.”
The official said for the last couple of years Bangladesh and Myanmar have engaged each other bilaterally and regionally.
Source: Dhaka Tribune