Amid tension, Assam set to hold Indo-Bangla Stakeholders Meet

 Amid recent hostilities along the Indo-Bangladesh border in West Bengal, Assam is all set to hold a two-day Indo-Bangladesh Stakeholders meet from Tuesday.

Officials of the Assam government said that Minister of Commerce of the neighbouring country Tipu Munshi, has confirmed participation in the summit with a 90 member delegation including bureaucrats and senior members of the business fraternity of Bangladesh.

Ministers from Central government in New Delhi and top officials of Ministry of Commerce, External Affairs, Road Transport and Shipping are also likely to attend this meet, officials said on Saturday.

However, tension has gripped both sides of the Indo-Bangla border after one Border Security Force (BSF) jawan was killed and another injured in firing by a soldier of Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) at Murshidabad in West Bengal on Thursday.

Although the BSF and BGB had maintained a cordial atmosphere along the borders without even firing of a single bullet in the past one decade, yet the incident on Thursday has dampened the spirit ahead of the meet.

BSF chief V.K. Johri had called up BGB Chief over hotline for a detailed probe. The incident took place when a BSF team entered the Bangladesh territory responding to a call for a flag meeting the same day.

"The India-Bangladesh Stakeholders' Meet aims at orchestrating North-East India's regional support to the visionary initiative of Prime Minister's Act East Policy. The framework of the Meet would comprise generating awareness about the opportunities made available by the new path-breaking agreements between India and Bangladesh and harnessing comprehensive cooperation of all relevant stakeholders of India and Bangladesh," a senior official of the Assam government said on Saturday.

"We believe that the upcoming event would provide an extensive fillip to the establishment of business relations not only with Bangladesh, but also with South East Asian countries through the ports of Bangladesh, he said.

The meet, he said, is expected to create awareness about the opportunities made available to exporters and transporters by these path-breaking agreements, addressing loose ends during their operationalisation, and harnessing comprehensive cooperation of all relevant stakeholders of India and Bangladesh to achieve synergy in cross-border trade between Bangladesh and North East India. IANS