Dipu Moni for trade with Kazakhstan
Foreign Minister Dipu Moni yesterday said Bangladesh and India achieved substantial progress in important areas, including resolving sharing of Teesta water, border demarcation and trade imbalance.
She said both countries also made big progress in implementing Indo-Bangladesh Joint Communiqué issued during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to India in January last year.
Dipu Moni said this while responding to questions at a regular press conference at the foreign ministry.
“Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to New Delhi generated much expectation and many of the issues would be resolved through Indian prime minister's visit to Bangladesh,” she added.
However, Dipu Moni could not mention when Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit would be but said it would be “soon”.
Replying to a question about the service charge for providing transit to India, she said, “It is a very big issue involving many factors.
“Service charge would also depend on how much user countries like India, Bhutan and Nepal would benefit by using the transit offered by Bangladesh.”
She said foreign ministry and National Board of Revenue are working on it to ensure a win-win situation for the countries concerned.
Journalists asked Dipu Moni whether it was a breach of diplomatic protocol when she and Sheikh Hasina felicitated Trinomul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee on her election victory in West Bengal assembly election.
In reply, she said it was quite natural as the prime minister has a very good personal relation with Mamata Banerjee whose Trinamool Congress routed the communists, who had been in power since 1977.
Dipu Moni hoped that the Mamata government in West Bengal would extend all cooperation in resolving issues with Bangladesh and would not stand against Bangladesh's interest.
On BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's discussions on Bangladesh's internal political affairs with British and American leaders, Dipu Moni said people will judge whether they feel embarrassed if the opposition leader seeks help abroad and gains strength.
She said it was quite natural that the prime minister or leader of the opposition, being a public representative, discusses political matters of their countries while visiting a foreign country.
“But if it is an exclusively internal political matter and tantamount to complaints, then people will judge it,'' she added.
She reiterated that Bangladesh's bilateral relations were not strained with any country over the affairs of Grameen Bank and Prof Yunus, which she said was a legal matter.
In reply to another question, Dipu Moni denied a report that Bangladesh was asked by the US to snap diplomatic ties with Libya.
She said Bangladesh still maintains diplomatic relations with Libya where more than 30,000 Bangladeshis are living. If any delegation from Libya comes to Bangladesh, the government will not oppose it, she added.
Acting Foreign Secretary Mustafa Kamal, Additional Foreign Secretary (UNCLOS) Rear Admiral (Retd) Md Khurshed Alam and foreign ministry's Director Generals Muhammad A Muhit, Shameem Ahsan and Mashfee Binte Shams were present.
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