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Indo-Bangla shipping secretary-level talks begin today

Staff Correspondent
20 Oct 2021 00:00:00 | Update: 20 Oct 2021 01:03:19
Indo-Bangla shipping secretary-level talks begin today

The shipping secretary-level second intergovernmental committee meeting between Bangladesh and India will begin today in New Delhi.

A shipping ministry statement said the 21st standing committee meeting would also kick off today in the Indian capital.

A 21-member Bangladesh delegation led by Shipping Secretary Mohammed Mezbah Uddin Chowdhury left Dhaka for New Delhi on Tuesday to hold the meetings.

Chittagong Port Authority Chairman Rear Admiral M Shahjahan is in the delegation. The meetings will continue till Friday (October 22).

The shipping secretary will lead secretary-level talks and the intergovernmental committee meeting.

Besides, Additional Secretary of the shipping ministry AKM Shamimul Haque Siddiqi will lead the 21st standing committee meeting under the protocol on inland water transit and trade.

The protocol was signed between the two countries on November 1, 1972, to make mutually beneficial arrangements for the use of their waterways for commerce. It continues based on renewal.

“One of the agenda of the meetings is to facilitate the transit of goods from one part of India to another through the ports of Chattogram and Mongla,” ‍said Chittagong Port Authority Secretary Mohammad Omar Faruk.

He said two experimental transit consignments had arrived through Chattogram port last year.

Several proposals of both sides regarding the consignments could be discussed and decided at the meetings, he said.

He also said multiple agreements and contracts between the two countries and their implementations would be discussed at the meetings.

Private stakeholders in the shipping sectors of both countries would attend the meetings, he added.

The last shipping secretary-level meeting between the two countries was held in Dhaka on December 4 and 5 in 2019.

The secretary-level meeting held in New Delhi in 2018 decided India’s north-eastern states would be permitted to use Bangladeshi ports, paving the way for cargo vessel movement between Kolkata and Dhaka. The coastal shipping agreement was signed in 2015 to make shipping easier between the two countries.

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