Prime Minister's adviser for international affairs Gowher Rizvi on Saturday asked reporters not to be myopic on the issue of allowing transit to India through Bangladesh territory.
'We need to widen our vision. Don't be myopic,' Rizvi told them at an iftar party hosted by Diplomatic Correspondents, Bangladesh.
He said, Bangladesh and India does not require a fresh agreement on transit as they had given their formal consent on the issue in the 1974 agreement on trade for mutual use of their waterways, roadways and railways for the transportation of goods between two places in one country through the territory of the other.
'Now, only operational modalities would be finalised by the two governments,' he said.
Rizvi said Bangladesh government would fix the charges for allowing the use of its waterways, roadways and railways for the passage of goods keeping in consideration the cost of infrastructure, their maintenance, electrification and environmental and other aspects.
'However, it is also important to keep the competitiveness of the charges,' he said.
He said that the two countries would sign several agreements, protocols and memorandums of understanding during the two-day visit of Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh to Dhaka beginning September 6.
He said that Bangladesh and India would also sign a framework agreement on various shared issues, including water, trade, education and culture.
Rizvi, however, evaded a question New Age asked whether the framework agreement would also include the issue of defense cooperation.
Asked whether the framework agreement will incorporate the provisions of the 30-year Bangladesh-India Friendship Treaty the two countries had signed in 1972, he said those elements 'would never come back'.
He said that Bangladesh government would make public the agreements it would sign with India during Manmohan Singh's visit.
Some of the agreements would be placed in parliament, he said.
'Don't tell me what the traders say,' he said when asked about the concerns expressed by the business community that Bangladesh would lose its trade advantage or the market in the seven or eight north-eastern Indian states if Bangladesh gives transit through its territory between India and its northeastern states, which are not landlocked.
He said, 'the entire Indian market would be open for us.'
DCAB president Raheed Ejaz and general secretary Abdul Majid also spoke.
Source : New Age
