The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Bangladesh summoned India's High Commissioner yesterday to protest exploration work by Indian ships in gas-rich Bangladesh territorial waters in the Bay of Bengal.

Foreign Secretary Touhid Hossain summoned Indian High Commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty and handed over a written protest urging an immediate cessation of survey activities, spokesman Yeakub Ali said.

Asked about the Indian response, he said the envoy would send the note to New Delhi to convey Dhaka's concern and get back the reaction.

He hoped that the survey ships would stop survey or development work following Dhaka's protest, which came in the wake of reports about Indian ships' trespassing on Bangladesh's territorial waters.

An Indian survey ship was seen conducting exploration in the deep sea in block 14 within the maritime boundary claimed by Bangladesh under the terms of the Territorial Water and Maritime Zones Act 1974.

Pinak observed that this is an overlapping zone and both India and Bangladesh claim it. Since the matter is under discussion, he proposed to the Foreign Secretary that Dhaka send a team to India "as soon as possible".

He said the survey ships are not Indian. These are Jamaican ships chartered by a private company having licence from the Indian government to conduct the survey.

Asked whether the ships will leave the disputed zone, the diplomat told reporters that, of course, they would pull out, but only after completing the survey.

"The ships have their own work, and whatever works they have they will do and will move out soon," he said, apparently reflecting a defiant position of the opposite side in the face of protest.

Asked how the survey could be conducted in the disputed zone, he posed a counter-question when discussions are on, why the Bangladesh government did put it for international bidding, "knowing full well that we have overlapping claims. Both sides have a right."

The Indian High Commissioner categorically said, "We're keen that Bangladesh team goes to Delhi to sort out these issues. Otherwise, these overlapping claims will remain and ships from both sides will come."

Asked about possibility of escalation of tensions in the Bay of Bengal over the survey, he said, "There is no such tension. We talk to each other all the time."

Pinak said, now smilingly, "Look, if tension had to be created, we could have done something else. That's not our intention at all."

The Foreign Secretary said the proposal for discussion is "positive" and Bangladesh would send the technical team to Delhi end of January at the earliest. But no date for the meeting has been proposed.

Meanwhile, Foreign Adviser Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury said, "We are confident that peaceful deliberations and diplomatic measures will ultimately lead to a mutually acceptable solution."

He however said just as Bangladesh respects international norms in such solutions, "we expect and hope that all our neighbours will do the same. In this spirit, we have requested India to postpone the survey till such time when a settlement on the subject is reached".

Earlier, a Bangladesh navy vessel that spotted the Indian survey ship during patrol asked the survey ship to leave Bangladesh waters. While the survey ship initially moved towards Indian waters, they returned to its earlier location where they were again positioned in the afternoon of December 25.

When the Bangladesh navy for the second time asked the survey ship to leave the Bangladesh waters, they claimed that it was India's waters.

The officer said two more Bangladeshi naval ships were sent to the area as backup to their patrol ship. An Indian maritime patrol aircraft flew over the Bangladeshi naval patrol vessel on Thursday afternoon after the Bangladesh navy made the protest.

A naval commander told the New Nation two Bangladeshi ships had been sent to the region and a third was on its way as reinforcement.

Last month a similar row between Bangladesh and its eastern neighbour Myanmar flared over another disputed stretch in the Bay.

Bangladesh deployed four ships and put its navy and armed forces on high alert after a South Korean company escorted by Myanmar ships began work in the area.

A series of top-level diplomatic talks between the two failed to resolve the dispute and it was only after Myanmar removed the ships that it simmered down.