India-Bangladesh meeting on security and border management begins

A two-day 18th Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting on security and border management between India and Bangladesh started on Monday in Delhi. Indian delegation for the JWG meeting is being led by Piyush Goyal, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). An Additional Secretary level officer is also heading the group of eight-member Bangladeshi delegation which will discuss the issues of common concern of the two neighbouring countries that share a 4,096 km border.

This Additional Secretary level meeting which, officials said, is a preparatory event to a Home Secretary level talks between India and Bangladesh in the run-up. The 17th Home Secretary level talks between India and Bangladesh and the meeting of the Joint Working Group between the two countries were held in Dhaka on November 16-17, 2015 to discuss the security and border management-related issues.

The Indian delegation was led by the then Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and the Bangladesh delegation was led by the then Senior Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Dr Md. Mozammel Haque Khan.

Relations between the two countries and further moves to expand and strengthen mutual cooperation is learnt to be the base of the meeting, said sources, adding that both sides will discuss strengthening the bilateral arrangements to address the menace of terrorism and extremism in all its manifestations.

Bangladesh’s side is committed to ensuring full cooperation to address India’s security concerns.

Expediting the process of handing over wanted criminals in either country, immediate action on the basis of real-time and actionable information on smuggling of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN), drugs and arms and ammunitions, the menace of trafficking of women and children for coordinated action against individuals, touts, agents involved in human trafficking among other issues.

Both sides will also discuss issues to develop mechanisms to further hasten the process of verification of nationality, and status of prisoners lodged in jails of either country, particularly of those who have completed their sentence to enable their early repatriation and also implementation of an agreement on Transfer of Sentenced Persons (TSP).

To implement Coordinated Border Management Plan (CBMP) in letter and its spirit for effective guarding of the Indo-Bangladesh border is also among the issues.