India, Bangladesh's foreign ministers discuss situation in Myanmar

By Ahmad Adil and SM Najmus Sakib

NEW DELHI, India /DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) - India and Bangladesh’s foreign ministers held talks Wednesday on the situation in Myanmar as hundreds of its security personnel fled to the two countries in recent weeks.

Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Muhammad Hasan Mahmud met with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in India’s capital New Delhi.

The two sides discussed in “detail the evolving situation in Myanmar and its impact on regional stability,” said a statement released by Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry.

Clashes between troops of Myanmar’s junta regime and at least three rebel armed groups have intensified in recent months.

It has led to hundreds of Myanmar’s security personnel fleeing to India and Bangladesh, including border guards and police.

Cross-border exchanges of fire between the warring parties from inside Myanmar into Bangladesh and China have resulted in two deaths and several injuries.

According to Dhaka, Mahmud and Jaishankar also noted that the repatriation of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to Myanmar was discussed and Bangladesh’s foreign minister “reiterated (his call for) India's support in the early repatriation of Rohingya refugees.”

Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and repatriation commissioner based in Cox’s Bazar, earlier told Anadolu: “We are already burdened with millions of Myanmar nationals. We can’t take more refugees now.”

The statement from Dhaka said the two ministers also discussed the issue of killings along the Bangladesh-India border and “both agreed to enhanced cooperation between the two border guard forces and using non-lethal weapons to reduce border killings to zero.”

The two South Asian countries share a 4,096-kilometer (2,545-mile) international border, the fifth-longest land border in the world.

According to Bangladesh legal aid and human rights organizations, dozens of people have been killed in firing by Indian forces along the border in the last few years.

Early on Wednesday, Mahmud also met with Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.

In a separate statement, India’s Foreign Ministry said Mahmud and Jaishankar reviewed the progress in wide-ranging areas of “bilateral relations, including cross-border connectivity, economic and development partnership, cooperation in defense and security, power, energy, water resources and people-to-people exchanges.”

Mahmud is on a three-day official visit to India until Friday.

This is his first official overseas visit since assuming office as Bangladesh’s top diplomat last month.