India and Bangladesh, who began a two-day “substantive discussions” on bilateral issues here on Monday, are likely to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
The foreign-secretary-level meeting between the two countries is being held after a gap of two years.
In the opinion of Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, who is leading his country's nine-member delegation, the two countries “will see how to take our relations forward, to our mutual benefit”.
His Bangladeshi counterpart, Touhid Hossain, who is heading an 11-member team, is also hopeful that they would be able to resolve some of the issues the two countries have not resolved for a long time.
Sources said a number of bilateral issues came up for discussion on the first day and they were expecting positive steps on Tuesday.
They indicated that issues related to security, peaceful border management, prevention of cross-border illegal movement, co-operation in management of water resources, economic and trade co-operation, consular and cultural exchanges and enclaves figured in the meeting.
They said an MoU between the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) and the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is expected to be signed before they end the meeting on Tuesday.
If the MoU is signed, BSTI and BIS will standardise quality controls to allow the BSTI to perform tests and certify Bangladeshi goods for export to India.
“These are the first steps to remove non-tariff barriers,” said a Bangladesh official.
Bangladesh and India have a number of contentious issues that include exchange of enclaves and lands in adverse possession, harbouring of terrorists, demarcation of the maritime boundary and demarcation of 6.5 km land boundary.
There are 111 Indian enclaves measuring 17,158 acres within Bangladesh territory, while India has 51 Bangladeshi enclaves with an area of about 7,110 acres.
More than three lakh Bangladeshis living in enclaves are virtually isolated from the mainland and have no access to public amenities and basic rights.
The Bangladesh election commission has requested the foreign ministry to discuss the issue with the Indian foreign secretary and to let the enclave people participate in the forthcoming voting.