Dhaka - Bangladesh's caretaker government said Tuesday the
whirlwind visit by Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee
to Dhaka was highly successful.
An official statement Tuesday said the exchange of views between
Mukherjee and Foreign Affairs Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury
concerned a series of outstanding issues including trade imbalance,
water-sharing and security.
Mukherjee dashed to the Bangladesh capital Dhaka overnight on a
day's visit to India's closest neighbour mainly to deliver invitation
letters to top government leaders for attending the fourteenth summit
of the regional forum SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation).
India is staging the summit in New Delhi April 3-4 which will be
attended by founding members Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal,
Pakistan and Sri Lanka besides the host country.
Diplomatic sources said Afghanistan was likely to join the summit
as a newly admitted member of the forum.
Chowdhury, who heads the Foreign Ministry in the interim
government, described the talks with his Indian counterpart as
'successful.'
Mukherjee announced in Dhaka the withdrawal of tariff barriers to
reduce the trade gap between the two neighbours.
India also announced the import of 2 million pieces of ready-made
apparel from Bangladesh free of duty in an effort to correct the
imbalance.
This is the first meeting at a high level between India and
Bangladesh since a caretaker government took charge in Dhaka in
January.
The statement said India would not divert water from the upper
reaches of the Tipaimukh river to put into operation a dam as this
could upset the share of water flowing into lower Bangladesh.
On security Bangladesh and India agreed not to allow any terrorist
or insurgent groups to use their territory as sanctuaries.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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