Indian Decade

A Bangladesh Border Deal?

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Indian Decade

A Bangladesh Border Deal?

India’s relations with Bangladesh are set to get a boost with the signing of a deal to resolve border disputes.

With a couple of days before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Bangladesh, India and Bangladesh have done something for the first time that will come in handy for resolving differences over their 4,156-kilometre-long border: they have prepared strip maps of the border following a joint survey by the two countries.

The 11,000-page strip maps (not to scale drawings of routes that include critical points along the border) will be crucial in helping the two neighbours iron out their long-standing border dispute. Indications are that the two sides are indeed going to sign the boundary agreement during Singh’s upcoming visit to Dhaka, a move that would be a major confidence-building booster for India-Bangladesh ties. The landmark agreement is set to involve the ‘exchange of 162 enclaves and 6,500 acres of adversely possessed land and 6.5 kilometres of un-demarcated borders between the two countries and 24-hour access to Bangladesh's Dahagram and Angarpota enclaves through Tin Bigha corridor,’ according to Bangladesh’s Daily Star.

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