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No river linking without talks

Morshed tells of Delhi's apparent policy shift; no troops request for Iraq's Muslim force yet

Staff Correspondent
Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan said yesterday India has agreed on regional co-operation in water sharing management, apparently a major shift in Delhi’s policy to common rivers between the two countries.
India assured that it wouldn't implement its proposed river-link project without consulting the
regional countries concerned, he told reporters at his office at the foreign ministry.
Bangladesh has always been arguing that upper and lower riparian countries should work together on regional water management. "I thought that they have approved our proposal."
Delhi’s consent to Dhaka’s proposal came during the meeting between Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the BIMST-EC summit in Bangkok on Saturday.
Singh also promised to continue the process for greater market access for Bangladeshi goods to India, a step he initiated during his term as finance minister, Morshed said.
Delhi also pledged to move on bilateral issues only upon mutual consultation.
Morshed said Dhaka appreciated Singh's statement that any reports on influx of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in India would not be entertained by Delhi, as there are no correct or substantive proof.
NO TROOPS REQUEST
YET FOR MUSLIM FORCE
Bangladesh has not received any proposal from Saudi Arabia for the formation of a Muslim security force for Iraq.
"We have not received any request or proposal from Saudi Arabia and our stance (on sending troops to Iraq) remains unchanged," Morshed said.
Several issues need to be discussed before reaching any decision on sending troops over there, he said.
Though there was no formal request for troops, the Saudi foreign ministry conveyed its interest in Dhaka's participation in the Muslim force to the Bangladeshi embassy in Riyadh, several foreign ministry sources confided.
Currently there are no Muslim countries among the 160,000 US-led troops in Iraq, out of which approximately 140,000 are Americans.
The other Muslim countries that were reportedly approached by Riyadh were Pakistan, Indonesia, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.