India-Bangladesh sign pact on border demarcation

[gubbi]

India-Bangladesh sign pact on border demarcation

Dhaka: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina signed a big accord on border demarcation ending their 4-decade old disputes over boundaries. India has also announced 24-hour access to Bangladeshis in the Tin Bigha Corridor.
A visit that is being described as path breaking, even historic, began on a rather sour note. The Bangladesh Foreign Ministry summoned India's high commissioner to lodge a protest over Delhi backing out on signing the Teesta river waters agreement, but both sides have now agreed to work towards a satisfactory resolution.
The mood appeared to brighten as other agreements were signed and the most crucial agreement was the demarcation and exchange of adversely held enclaves.

No no-man’s land: PM & Hasina mark border

After more than three decades of indecision, India and Bangladesh today signed a historic agreement on the demarcation of the entire land boundary between the two countries resolving the status of 162 adversely held enclaves.

Manmohan Singh, Sheikh Hasina put Teesta behind, fix boundary

DHAKA: Mamata Banerjee's public sulk on the Teesta water-sharing pact almost killed the Manmohan Singh-Sheikh Hasina summit billed as a paradigm shift in India-Bangladesh ties. A land boundary agreement and significant trade concessions by India saved the day, but it was a close shave for both leaders.

It took an hour-long one-on-one meeting between Sheikh Hasina and Singh to turn a summit collapse into something both sides could live with. Even India's decision to give Bangladesh duty free access to 46 textile items in the sensitive list failed to lift the sense of gloom here.

A landmark agreement on border demarcation and exchange of enclaves will ensure the momentum in India-Bangladesh relations is not lost and both sides will hope that a convergence of interests driving the two leaderships is not lost sight of in the midst of Banerjee's domestic jockeying.

Just as Singh tried several last minute phone calls on Monday night, Sheikh Hasina too called Banerjee to get her to change her mind. But Banerjee is believed to have explained to Hasina that her reasons had less to do with Bangladesh and much more to do with local politics.