Dhaka: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina on Sunday said her party would work for ensuring victory on
maritime dispute with India if it was reelected to power in
2014 elections.
"In the case with Myanmar, we got the verdict in our
favour. We expect another victory when the judgement over the
dispute with India is announced in 2014," she told a party
rally.
Hasina said after coming to power in 2009, her government
filed cases with the international court over maritime
boundary disputes with Myanmar and India.
Her comments came a day after new Indian envoy in Dhaka
Pankaj Saran said New Delhi was willing to resolve its
maritime dispute with Bangladesh through bilateral
negotiations as Dhaka won an international tribunal verdict
against Myanmar on an identical dispute earlier this week.
"I conveyed to the honourable foreign minister (Dipu
Moni) that it (verdict against Myanmar) was an important
decision. And we look forward to working with Bangladesh
bilaterally on the issues that affects Dhaka and New Delhi,"
Saran told newsmen after his first meeting with foreign
minister Dipu Moni yesterday.
Asked for comments on International Tribunal on laws of
the Sea`s verdict over maritime disputes with Myanmar as Dhaka
also has identical disputes with India, the envoy said "all
issues were on the table of discussion".
"India would love to continue to discuss those issues
bilaterally...even today we had healthy and productive
dialogue with the foreign minister," Saran said.
Bangladesh in 2010 decided to go for international
arbitration in line with the provisions of UN Convention on
the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) as the ongoing discussions with
India and Myanmar could not yield the expected results.
Dhaka earlier said it kept options open for solving the
disputes bilaterally though it sought the resolution in the
international tribunal as the negotiations in the past several
decades yielded no result.
The German-based international tribunal`s verdict on
March 14 on dispute with Myanmar largely came in Bangladesh`s
favour on the basis of `equitable` solutions.
A separate case has also been filed against India with
another European court in the Netherlands and the verdict is
likely to come at the end of 2014.
Bangladesh has been pursuing the same `equitable`
solution formula with India, which has been advocating for
equidistant formula that limits Bangladesh maritime area in
the Bay of Bengal.
PTI
