India, Bangladesh DG-level border talks begin in Dhaka

New Delhi: India and Bangladesh began their bi-annual DG-level border talks in Dhaka on Tuesday to discuss a host of issues related to curbing cross-frontier crimes and measures to create better coordination between their security forces and agencies.

A delegation led by Border Security Force (BSF) Director General Nitin Agrawal reached Dhaka for the meeting to be held between March 5-9 with their counterparts Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).

BGB Director General Major General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui will lead the Bangladeshi delegation.

"During the border coordination conference, both sides will be deliberating on a wide range of issues related to border management specially prevention of border crimes, border infrastructure related issues, joint efforts for effective implementation of coordinated border management plan (CBMP), river bank protection works and water sharing between both the countries etc.," a BSF spokesperson said.

This is the 54th edition of the talks between the two forces.

Both sides are expected to deliberate on a number of issues related to border management like taking steps to stop incidents of assault and attacks on the BSF personnel and civilians by the Bangladeshi criminals, jointly checking crimes like smuggling of goods and fake Indian currency along this front, improving the coordinated border management plan (CBMP) and checking illegal construction activities along the border fence, among other things, a senior Union home ministry officer had told PTI last month.

The BSF guards the 4,096-km-long Indian front with Bangladesh on the country's eastern side.

The DG-level border talks were held annually between 1975 and 1992, but they were made bi-annual in 1993 with either side alternatively travelling to the national capitals of New Delhi and Dhaka.

The last talks were held in Delhi in June, 2023.