Indian External Affairs Minister IK Gujral yesterday said that there exists in India a broad consensus favouring Improvement of bilateral rela tions with Bangladesh

"This consensus Is reflected In the willingness of the politi cal leadership of the current government to improve Indo Bangladesh relations.' he said The present Indian govern ment Is firm in Its resolve to find solutions to all the prob leins that inhibit improvement in these relations

The visiting Indian minister was speaking at a dialogue on Indo Bangladesh economic re lations in tlie city yesterday or Smsed by the Centre lor Policy alogue (CPD) Foreign Minis ter Abdus Samad Azad was also present at the dialogue which was moderated by Professor Rehman Sobhan Executive Chairman ot CPD

The dialogue was attended by some members of Gujral s dele gation including Somnath Chatterjee leader of the CPM Parliamentary Party in the Lok Sabha Geeta Mukherjee De puty Leader of CPI group in the Lok Sobha Salman Haider Secretary for External Affairs

Pro! Ramaswamy Iyer ol CPR as well as eminent Journalists Bhabanl Sen Gupta and Inder Molhotra

Participants from Bangladesh Included a broad cross section ol political opin ion and professional back grounds Tills amongst others Included Abul Hasan Chaud hury State Minister lor For elgn Altair* Suranlcel Sen Gupta Adviser to tne Prime

Minister on Parliamentary Af fairs. Dr Kamal Hossain. Prea idem Gono Forum. Anisul Is lam Mahmud, former Foreign Minister, former finance mtn ister M Syeduzzaman and AMA Muhith Prof Mohammad Yunus. Managing Director. Grameen Bank. FH Abed, Executive Director BRAC, Abdul Momln. Member of Parliament from Awaml League as well as members of paniament from BNP Morshed Khan and Amir Koharu Chowdhury, and Fa rooq Sobhan. Foreign Secre tary of Bangladesh. The bus! lies* conununity was well represented by Salman F Rahman President of FBCCI, Samson H Chowdhury President of MCCI Abdul Awal Mlntoo, President. BEA and Laila Rahman Kabir President. Cha Sangshad Amongst the journalists Editor of Sangbad Ahmedul Kabir. Ed Itor of The Daily Star Mahfuz Anam and Editor of Holiday Enayetullah Khan were present Amongst the economists Prof Mosharaff Hossatn and Prof Muzaffer Ahmed were present.

Replying to a question Gu Jral expressed his belie! that there was no reason to fear that the current goodwill towards Bangladesh may change in future with a change of government since such "relations were founded on a mutuality of national interest and not on the preferences of the government of the moment. There Is indeed a commitment at policy level within India to improve relations with Bangladesh.

He Informed the meeting that on his last visit to Dhaka, when he was as opposition leader, he came to learn, this time as a Foreign Minister he has come to deliver.

On such issues as transit, Gujral pointed out that he had nothing to suggest to Bangladesh on this issue and that "it was left entirely to the government and people of Bangladesh to decide what initiatives they wanted to take in this area based on Bangladesh's own assessment of what It stood to gain or lose from transit."

All participants agreed that whilst the 'track-2' diplomacy cannot and should not substitute or subvert official 'track-1' diplomacy, it should be encouraged as a supplementary process for official diplomacy since it played a valuable role.

involving a broad range of political opinion from the countries concerned, in collectively seeking solutions to problems which nave for long remained unresolved at the official level.

"Where participants involved in track-2 cross-over to track-1. as has happened in the case of CPR-CPD Indo-Ban-galdesh dialogues, this process of citizen's diplomacy may turn out to be particularly rewarding." the meeting noted.

It may be mentioned that IK Gujral and Somnath Chatteijee last visited Dhaka in May 1995 to participate in a policy dialogue on Indo-Bangladesh Economic Relations' hosted by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD). Dhaka and co-sponsored by the CPD and Centre for Policy Research (CPR). New Delhi.

Both Gujral and Chatterjee were at that time members of the Opposition in the Indian Parliament. SAMS Klbria. now Bangladesh Finance Minister, was also an active participant of the dialogue as was Morshed Khan and Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury.

The 1995 Dhaka Dialogue addressed some of the principal issues constraining Inao-Bangladesh economic rela-

tions. It specially focused on the need and scope for enhancing as well as diversifying Bangladesh's export capacity to India as part of a strategy for reducing Bangladesh's rapidly expanding trade Imbalance with India.

Whilst the discussion emphasized on issues of economic cooperation, the discourse ranged over a broader spectrum of issues such as water-sharing, easing of visa regulations, regional transit arrangements, in the context of developing an Eastern sub-regional cooperation, involving Nepal. Bhutan. India and Bangladesh and establishing links with Myanmar. Southwest China and South East Asia.

At yesterday's meeting Somnath Chaterjee reaffirmed Gu Jral's position on IndoBangladesh relations and In formed the participants that there is a broad-based support In West Bengal as well as in India for enhancing Indo Bang ladesh cooperation and that the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Jyotl Basu, was particularly committed to improving relations with Bangladesh.