DHAKA:  The 51st round of the Director-General level border coordination meeting between India’s Border Security Force (BSF) and Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) was underway on Tuesday in Guwahati, Assam.

BGB PRO Mohammad Shariful Islam told IANS that the five-day talks will include discussions on border related issues aimed at enabling better coordination between the two border guarding forces, with a special focus on addressing and streamlining mechanisms on how to jointly curb various trans-border crimes and timely sharing of information.

While a 12-member Indian delegation is being represented by BSF Director General Rakesh Asthana, BGB Director General Major General Md Shafeenul Islam is heading the 11-member Bangladesh delegation at the routine border conference.

Islam added that concerned officials from the Bangladesh Prime Minister’s Office, Home Affairs Ministry, Foreign Affairs Ministry and senior BGB officials will represent the Bangladesh delegation in the conference, while senior officials of BSF headquarters, frontier IGs and concerned officials of the Indian Home Affairs Ministry and External Affairs Ministry will represent the BSF delegation.

The last BSF-BGB border Coordination Conference was held from September 16-19 in Dhaka.

In 1975, the two sides envisaged that there should be frequent contacts between the border authorities to discuss the matters of immediate administrative concerns.

An Indian delegation under the leadership of then BSF DG Aswani Kumar and former BGB DG Major General Kuazi Golam Dastagir met in Kolkata on December 2, 1975, for the first time to discuss and solve the trans-border problems.

Since then the DG-level meetings were held alternatively in India and Bangladesh till 1993.

Meanwhile, the ongoing five-day talks will also focus on preventing cross-border smuggling and the protection of river banks in the border areas.

There will be deliberations on developmental and infrastructure works, joint efforts for effective implementation of Coordinated Border Management Plan (CBMP) and Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) for border management and quickest resolution of frontier related issues and undertaking steps for further strengthening the mutual trust and friendship between both border forces will be discussed in the conference.

The conference will conclude with the signing of a Joint Record of Discussions (JRD) on December 25, while the Bangladesh delegation will return home the next day.

IANS