BD-Burma Relations

[bd_4_ever]

Ok, this post is especially for the BD members.

I am a bit confused thus i may sound odd asking this question but what was the duration of the 2008 BD-Burma naval stand off? I mean how many days passed in the stand off? Additionally, was 17 Dec 2008 included in that span of time.

Reason for asking this is that i just came over a video that shows BD navy firing Oerlikon and Bofor guns somewhere down of kutubdia (i assume its near the disputed waters) at something in the night. Afaik there were no firings during the stand off. Thus i am bit confused and need to be cleared. Sorry if i am that ignorant.

Cheers!!!

 

[leonblack08]

Ok, this post is especially for the BD members.

I am a bit confused thus i may sound odd asking this question but what was the duration of the 2008 BD-Burma naval stand off? I mean how many days passed in the stand off? Additionally, was 17 Dec 2008 included in that span of time.

Reason for asking this is that i just came over a video that shows BD navy firing Oerlikon and Bofor guns somewhere down of kutubdia (i assume its near the disputed waters) at something in the night. Afaik there were no firings during the stand off. Thus i am bit confused and need to be cleared. Sorry if i am that ignorant.

Cheers!!!

First of all bro,can you link the video here?

Are you sure that wasn't a video of a night time exercise?

 

[eastwatch]

Ok, this post is especially for the BD members.

I am a bit confused thus i may sound odd asking this question but what was the duration of the 2008 BD-Burma naval stand off? I mean how many days passed in the stand off? Additionally, was 17 Dec 2008 included in that span of time.

Reason for asking this is that i just came over a video that shows BD navy firing Oerlikon and Bofor guns somewhere down of kutubdia (i assume its near the disputed waters) at something in the night. Afaik there were no firings during the stand off. Thus i am bit confused and need to be cleared. Sorry if i am that ignorant.

Cheers!!!

As far as I can remember, BD-Burma naval standoff started in the early November, 2008. The row stopped within November that year. So, the video you are telling about may be a naval exercise in waters off Kutubdia.

But, post the video for all of us to see and enjoy. Thanks in advance.

 

[bd_4_ever]

First of all bro,can you link the video here?

Are you sure that wasn't a video of a night time exercise?

Sure bro. Here it goes:-

Leon, as far as my knowledge is concerned it was the time of the naval stand-off (look where the name of the poster is mentioned). Thus, there should not be any type of firing i think, because it will act as a sign of provocation. Still look at this video and pay very careful attention to what one of the sailor is saying (in bangla). Mentioning all this, i suppose its not any type of exercise because simply situation and time would not support it.

I just needed to clear my doubt, thats it. Please feel free to tell me where i went wrong.

Cheers!!!

 

[leonblack08]

I don't think it was for the burmese ships,otherwise there would be retaliatory fire from there.But we didn't find any.And any such firing would cause a war to break out as the Burmese had beefed up on BD border.
My guesses are:

1.It was during winter exercise,because by Dec the naval stand off was cleared.

2.It was directed towards pirate ship,which is quite possible.

I could not get clearly what he was saying,the audio quality was very poor,so as the video quality.

 

[bd_4_ever]

I don't think it was for the burmese ships,otherwise there would be retaliatory fire from there.But we didn't find any.And any such firing would cause a war to break out as the Burmese had beefed up on BD border.
My guesses are:

1.It was during winter exercise,because by Dec the naval stand off was cleared.

2.It was directed towards pirate ship,which is quite possible.

I could not get clearly what he was saying,the audio quality was very poor,so as the video quality.

Thanks bro for clearing it out. May be you are right. And as it was in the night, video quality was pure and the sailor was talking about engaging all the time......

Neways seems like the pirates got some bullets deep up their a$$....

Cheers!!!

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

China will supply both to Bangladesh and Myanmar if there is any war,like the Iraq-Iran war.
Their military spending is way more than Bangladesh.We never know what they have in their hands.The way they are spending the status quo will soon change.So we need to spend accordingly to keep up.And that's what we are not doing.


The Burmese will soon come for the disputed waters again,and I fear this time they will be better prepared and with hostile intent.

We got your back

 

[eastwatch]

Bangladesh may skip UN arbitration with Myanmar | Bangladesh | bdnews24.com

Bangladesh may skip UN arbitration with Myanmar
Sat, Jan 23rd, 2010 4:21 pm BdST

Dhaka, Jan 23 (bdnews24.com)--The recent Bangladesh-Myanmar sea border talks made significant headway in a long-standing dispute that threatened 17 of Bangladesh's blocks in the Bay of Bengal, and may mean UN arbitration will no longer be needed to resolve the matter, foreign secretary Mohamed Mijarul Quayes said on Saturday.

Briefing journalists at the foreign ministry Saturday, the secretary also said the government would still go ahead with UN arbitration for settling sea border disputes with India.

Dhaka would also push to sign agreements with Delhi on sharing of all common rivers, including the Teesta, he said.

ONE SEA BORDER DEADLOCK 'RESOLVED'

The secretary said Bangladesh and Myanmar during Jan 8-9 maritime boundary talks had emerged from a long deadlock over the demarcation procedure.

"Myanmar for the first time recognised the 'equity method' to demarcate the sea boundary. This is a very big development in the maritime talks," said Quayes.

He said Myanmar in the past had always pushed for the 'equidistance method' for delimiting the sea boundary.

The equidistance method would deprive Bangladesh of 17 out of 28 offshore blocks in and Bangladesh's sea zone would be locked.

The technical level meeting on Jan 8-9 in Chittagong agreed that Bangladesh and Myanmar would demarcate the common sea boundary through a combination of equity and equidistance methods.

"The agreement with Myanmar means Bangladesh no longer need worry about losing 17 blocks in the Bay of Bengal," Commodore Khurshed Alam, an additional secretary who led the Bangladesh side at the maritime talks with Myanmar in Chittagong, told reporters.

Quayes said: "Therefore, we need not appoint arbitrator at the UN tribunal to settle the disputes over maritime boundary delimitation with Myanmar."

"But we are still in the process of appointing arbitrator for settling the maritime dispute with India," he said.

The secretary said Bangladesh-Myanmar maritime delimitation had been referred for arbitration to the United Nations tribunal under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

"If Bangladesh and Myanmar could settle the remaining issues through bilateral talks, the UNCLOS tribunal would be redundant," said the secretary.

 

[TopCat]

Very good move by Myanmar. They came back to their sane, i suppose.

 

[bd_4_ever]

Bangladesh may skip UN arbitration with Myanmar | Bangladesh | bdnews24.com

Bangladesh may skip UN arbitration with Myanmar
Sat, Jan 23rd, 2010 4:21 pm BdST

Dhaka, Jan 23 (bdnews24.com)--The recent Bangladesh-Myanmar sea border talks made significant headway in a long-standing dispute that threatened 17 of Bangladesh's blocks in the Bay of Bengal, and may mean UN arbitration will no longer be needed to resolve the matter, foreign secretary Mohamed Mijarul Quayes said on Saturday.

Briefing journalists at the foreign ministry Saturday, the secretary also said the government would still go ahead with UN arbitration for settling sea border disputes with India.

Dhaka would also push to sign agreements with Delhi on sharing of all common rivers, including the Teesta, he said.

ONE SEA BORDER DEADLOCK 'RESOLVED'

The secretary said Bangladesh and Myanmar during Jan 8-9 maritime boundary talks had emerged from a long deadlock over the demarcation procedure.

"Myanmar for the first time recognised the 'equity method' to demarcate the sea boundary. This is a very big development in the maritime talks," said Quayes.

He said Myanmar in the past had always pushed for the 'equidistance method' for delimiting the sea boundary.

The equidistance method would deprive Bangladesh of 17 out of 28 offshore blocks in and Bangladesh's sea zone would be locked.

The technical level meeting on Jan 8-9 in Chittagong agreed that Bangladesh and Myanmar would demarcate the common sea boundary through a combination of equity and equidistance methods.

"The agreement with Myanmar means Bangladesh no longer need worry about losing 17 blocks in the Bay of Bengal," Commodore Khurshed Alam, an additional secretary who led the Bangladesh side at the maritime talks with Myanmar in Chittagong, told reporters.

Quayes said: "Therefore, we need not appoint arbitrator at the UN tribunal to settle the disputes over maritime boundary delimitation with Myanmar."

"But we are still in the process of appointing arbitrator for settling the maritime dispute with India," he said.

The secretary said Bangladesh-Myanmar maritime delimitation had been referred for arbitration to the United Nations tribunal under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

"If Bangladesh and Myanmar could settle the remaining issues through bilateral talks, the UNCLOS tribunal would be redundant," said the secretary.

Fishy....fishy....and very FISHY.....

 

[eastwatch]

Fishy....fishy....and very FISHY.....

A negotiation on the disputed maritime border between BD and Burma may take a very long time, specially when thought in the light of the past adversities between the two countries. But, I hope sanity will prevail in both the Capitals.

 

[Skies]

Suu Kyi for more active role by India for democracy in Myanmar
Press Trust Of India
New Delhi, December 08, 2010

Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi wants India to play a "more active" role in democratisation of her country and to "engage more" with her opposition party. 65-year-old Suu Kyi in an interview to PTI also said that India must live up to the reputation of being the biggest democracy in the world and not be dictated by its commercial interests in Myanmar.

Commenting on India's growing economic-driven engagement with the military regime, the opposition leader said she was not against India's engagement with Than Shwe's ruling military regime but wanted India to play an active role in democratisation of Myanmar and have parleys with her National league for Democracy party.

"We would like India to play a more active role in trying to help in the process of democratisation of Burma and I would like the Indian government to engage more with us... who are working more with democracy," the Nobel peace laureate said in the interview on phone from Yangon.

Suu Kyi India's foreign policy towards her country was dictated by it's "commercial side" and urged the world's largest democracy to live up to its reputation by engaging with her pro-democratic party.

"India's role in previous decades has been aided firmly by its reputation as the biggest democracy and it has taken pride in this, but, perhaps, more attention has turned towards the commercial side," she said.

Suu Kyi said she expected the Indian government "to look beyond this commercial kind of view when it comes to Myanmar."

Suu Kyi, who lived in India in the 1980s, was released in Yangon on November 13 after spending more than seven consecutive years in detention.

Once a strong supporter of Suu Kyi, India began engaging the Myanmar's military ruler in the mid-1990s as security, energy and strategic needs appeared to override concerns over democracy and human rights.

India is eager to boost its investment in gas and hydro-electricity projects in Myanmar and is eyeing oil and gas fields and fears losing out to China in the race for strategic space in Asia. It also counted on the military junta's help to counter ethnic separatists operating along their remote eastern common border.

 

[Skies]

Burma implicated in nuclear weapons construction
Oliver Scanlan, 10 December 2010

The Myanmar military government is allegedly attempting to gain nuclear weapons with the aid of North Korea. Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in absentia. A major new pipeline is set to be agreed on by central and south Asian leaders in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. All this and more, in today’s security update.

One of the latest revelations from the US embassy cables disclosed by the website Wikileaks is that the Burmese government is engaged in the suspected construction of a clandestine nuclear and ballistic missile programme. Released on Thursday, the cable details the construction of underground sites in remote jungle locations with the assistance of North Korean technicians.

Specifically, one cable describes a site at Minbu, a town in the centre-west of the country. It is reported that surface-to-air missiles have been installed at the location, defending a ‘concrete-reinforced’ underground facility, insulated by 500ft of earth between the ceiling of the installation and the hill top above. The ruling junta has previously denied it is developing nuclear weapons, and allegations that it is doing so in co-operation with North Korea.

Another cable, also released on Thursday, describes increasing frustration on the part of Burma's key ally, China, with the military-governed state’s slow pace of reform. One cable, dating from 2008, detailed the comments of a Chinese foreign ministry official stating that the junta needed to take ‘bold steps’ to alleviate poverty in Burma. The official appeared to go as far to suggest that a national reconciliation was necessary between the junta and the pro-democracy movement, led by nobel laureate Aung Sang Suu Kyi.

The openSecurity verdict: As with much of the material disclosed by Wikileaks, the notion of a secret effort to gain a nuclear weapon with the aid of North Korea is not new. US secretary of state Hilary Clinton warned of such nuclear ties in 2009 and the Norwegian-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) has been suggesting for years that such a relationship had been established. The concrete details offered in the cables, however, provide a new and disturbing clarity to the picture.

That such activity is taking place is hardly shocking. The lesson of the 1991 Gulf War, according to the Indian defence minister, was that if you have a nuclear weapon, the US will not invade. The 2003 invasion of Iraq no doubt underscored this point for many regimes across the middle east and Asia.

This current alarming development is due in part to the chronic failure of the non-proliferation regime in the 1990s and 2000s, a failure attributable largely to US foreign policy. The development of new nuclear weapons by existing nuclear states, including the US, is a continual point of contention for non-nuclear powers. A partial list of more specific US tactical errors include withdrawing from the Agreed Framework with North Korea, spurning Iran’s ‘grand bargain’ of denuclearisation in exchange for entry to the WTO, agreeing nuclear co-operation with India, (a non-signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty) and withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.

In all of this China may be able to provide enough stability for and, if necessary, pressure on her otherwise isolated allies to reverse this potentially disastrous trend. The revelation of Chinese impatience with the Myanmar junta mirrors earlier disclosures of Beijing’s frustration with Pyongyang. It must be hoped that Chinese pressure, motivated by a need for international, and thereby economic, stability as a bulwark against domestic unrest, will be able to compensate for the egregious failures of US diplomacy.



Burma implicated in nuclear weapons construction | openDemocracy

About the author:
Oliver Scanlan works for a local NGO in Parbatipur, Bangladesh, which advocates the rights of indigenous peoples.

Bonus: India accepts funding Nepal Maoists to gain favor: WikiLeaks
http://telegraphnepal.com/news_det.php?news_id=8568