NEW DELHI, Aug 25 - India and Bangladesh will hold �important� Director General-level border talks in Dhaka next month to discuss a host of issues related to crimes on the front and other security challenges, officials said on Tuesday.
The biannual talks will be held between the Border Security Force (BSF) and their counterpart Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) on September 13-18 at Pilkhana, the headquarters of the Bangladeshi force in Dhaka.
Newly appointed BSF DG Rakesh Asthana will lead a dozen officers strong Indian delegation that will have representatives from the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), the External Affairs Ministry and other government agencies.
The Bangladeshi side will be led by BGB DG Maj Gen Md Shafeenul Islam.
�The last time the two sides met was in December in Delhi. The next round of meeting in September is going to be important as a number of bilateral issues along the 4,096-km-long front will be discussed and new protocols will be firmed up,� a senior officer said.
This is going to be the 50th round of DG-level talks between the two border guarding forces and a host of confidence building measures to enhance cooperation between the two sides will be discussed and formalised after the signing of a joint record of discussion at the end of the talks, the officer said.
The new paradigm of border management in the time of COVID-19 pandemic will also be charted during the talks where it is also expected that the Indian side will call on the top leadership of the Bangladesh government, he added. � PTI
