Rangoon, Burma (BBN) – Bangladesh and Burma, officially known as Myanmar, have reached an “in principle” agreement to open liaison offices on the border and increase security cooperation in the troubled area.
The high-level meeting in Nay Pyi Taw from June 10-12 was called in response to increasing tension and crime on the shared border, peaking recently with the killing of a Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) soldier by Myanmar Border Security Guards on May 28.
Myanmar Police Force chief Police Major General Zaw Win led the Myanmar side, with BGB director general Major General Azziz Ahmed heading the Bangladesh delegation.
The talks yielded an agreement to cooperation on nine areas, including the opening of several liaison offices. Both sides agreed to step up measures to combat the smuggling of methamphetamines and to share intelligence on armed groups operating in the area.
“This meeting is intended to get a win-win situation and to avoid a repeat of such kind of incidents in the future. It’s not about one side winning,” Police Brigadier General U Soe Myaing, from the police force’s transnational crime department, said after the meeting, according to The Myanmar Times report.
He said the border liaison offices would focus on terrorism and the trafficking of drugs, weapons and people.
“We have already built [liaison offices] on the borders with China, Thailand and Laos … we proposed it as a way of promoting border security," said Police Brigadier General Soe Myaing from trans-national boundary crime department.
At the meeting the Myanmar side agreed to share information concerning the activities of the Rohingya Solidarity Organization, the newspaper reported.
BBN/SSR/AD-14June14-5:55 pm (BST)
