B'desh speaker expects swift resolution of issues with India

Bangladesh's parliamentary speaker today hoped for a quick resolution of outstanding issues like the Teesta river and land boundary agreements with the new government in India while stressing the need for further cementing bilateral ties for mutual benefit.
"I congratulate the newly elected leadership in India. A shared history and common heritage consolidated our ties over time," Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury said while addressing a meeting of the Bangladesh-India Friendship Society at Dhaka University.
She said that a bill was pending with the Rajya Sabha in India for ratification of the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) with a proposed deal on the Teesta waters still to be inked.

"Our expectation is that the Teesta, the LBA and other issues will witness a win-win solution," she said at the meet, also attended by Foreign Minister Mahmood Ali, Indian High Commissioner in Bangladesh Pankaj Saran and Dhaka University Vice Chancellor Arefin Siddique.
Referring to the Indian elections, the foreign minister said Bangladesh-India ties were based on multiple complex factors including their geographic contiguity and common rivers while the course of history had seen maturing of ties through various complex situations.
"The ties reached an irreversible trajectory with the visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to Delhi in 2010 and return visit by her counterpart in the subsequent year," he said.

The Indian envoy said a new government was expected to take over in India in the next few days as "the voice of the people has been heard" while the relations of the two neighbours were based on friendship of the two peoples.

"It's not the two governments, but the bonds of the two people that forge the basis of our ties," Saran said.
He said the two countries had differences on some issues but "we now need to have the courage to minimise the differences not only for two of us (countries), but also for South Asia".
President of Bangladesh-India Friendship Society AK Azad Chowdhury said it was natural that the two neighbours would have some strains in their relations but irrespective of political changes, ties would continue.

"This association was formed in 1973 to develop the people to people relations," he said.