India-Bangladesh maritime border talks begins

Dhaka, Sept 15 (PTI) India and Bangladesh Monday began
talks to demarcate their contentious maritime boundary in the
resource-rich Bay of Bengal which has led to disputes
especially over oil and gas exploration rights.

A seven-member Indian delegation led by Chief
Hydrographer Rear Admiral BR Rao would hold three days of
talks with the Bangladeshi delegation led by Additional
Foreign Secretary MAK Mahmud.

Foreign Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury said Sunday
that both governments are committed to strengthening their
relations through resolution of all outstanding issues.

Once the issue is resolved, Dhaka can lay its claim to
the U.N. and go for offshore oil and gas exploration,
Bangladesh foreign ministry sources here said.


Earlier, India and Bangladesh discussed the issue in
1982. Bangladesh began its maritime boundary talks with
Myanmar in January this year.

The sources said Bangladesh had held two rounds of talks
with Myanmar and the discussions have yielded good results.

According to the United Nations Convention on Law of
the Sea, Bangladesh must demarcate its sea boundaries by 2011,
and India and Myanmar by 2009.

Bangladesh and India have not yet submitted claims about
their marine boundaries to the U.N.

In June, India and Myanmar strongly opposed Bangladesh's
offshore block bidding for exploration of oil and gas.

Earlier, Bangladesh had raised objections when India and
Myanmar floated international tenders for searching offshore
oil and gas in 2006 accusing them of overlapping Bangladesh
territory but did not get any reply from India.

The Bay of Bengal has become very important, especially
after India's discovery of 100 trillion cubic feet gas in
2005-06 and Myanmar's discovery of 7 tcf gas at the same time.
India also discovered oil in the Bay of Bengal. PTI CORR AKJ
BDS