Dhaka: Bangladesh and Myanmar today held
talks to narrow their differences over demarcation of maritime
boundary in Bay of Bengal.
Officials said the sixth round of negotiations, being
held in Myanmar's new capital Nay Pyi Taw, would follow up the
decisions taken at the previous round of talks held at port
city Chittagong in January this year.
In the last meeting, both the sides had agreed to
settle the long standing maritime dispute on the basis of
"equidistance and equity of resources".
"Additional Foreign Secretary M Khurshid Alam is
leading the Bangladesh delegation in the expert-level talks
while the Myanmar team will be led by its Deputy Foreign
Minister Yu Maung Myint," a Foreign Ministry official said.
Earlier, Alam told reporters that the fifth round of
talks between the two neighbours was "fruitful" as Myanmar for
the first time shifted from its "rigid" position on
"equidistance".
He said the sixth round of negotiations would explore
ways to iron out the differences.
Dhaka, earlier, sought to resolve the dispute on the
basis of "equity of resources" instead of line-based
equidistance system to get a bigger maritime area in the Bay.
Bangladesh, in October, had decided to seek resolution
of its maritime disputes with Myanmar as well as India in a UN
tribunal through arbitration saying the current negotiations
with the neighbours were unlikely to settle the issue in near
future.
However, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni at that time had
said the ongoing negotiations on bilateral basis would
continue simultaneously while she felt that the process would
not affect friendly relations with the two neighbours and
particularly the "time tested" ties with New Delhi.
According to officials, under a UN charter the
principle of "equity" takes into account a country's
population, economic status and needs, GDP growth and other
humane issues for demarcating maritime boundary while the
"equidistance" system marks the boundary through geometric
calculations.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, March 17, 2010, 16:04