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Indian ships leave Bangladesh waters

Envoy summoned to foreign office to lodge protest

Star Report
Tension over India's trespassing into Bangladeshi maritime boundary diffused yesterday morning as the three Indian oil and gas survey ships withdrew from Bangladeshi waters.
Meanwhile, the Indian high commissioner to Dhaka was summoned to the foreign ministry and handed Dhaka's protest note.
Navy sources said immediately after the survey ships left, an Indian coastguard vessel went to the spot and asked the Bangladeshi offshore patrol vessels there to leave the spot claiming it to be Indian waters.
The location is seven miles into Bangladeshi maritime boundary, which is also situated within Bangladeshi deep-sea oil and gas exploration Block-14.
Both the countries are now maintaining status quo. "Presently the tension has diffused. But there is a chance that India might send survey ships in the future. Our government must take this matter seriously to avert such tensed situation in future,” said a source.
Bangladesh Navy had spot-ted three Indian ships Thursday at 180 degrees from "Fairway Buoy" at 210 miles south in the Bay of Bengal from Mongla Port. When the Navy challenged them, they asked the Navy to back off from "Indian waters".
However, the survey ships moved westwards close to Indian waters.
The Navy then deployed frigate Khalid Bin Walid which was later withdrawn from the spot late Friday as India had not deployed any warships.
Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty was yesterday summoned to the foreign ministry and handed a formal protest note against petroleum survey by India's ships inside Bangladesh maritime boundary, UNB reports.
Foreign Secretary Touhid Hossain, who lodged the formal government protest, told reporters that the Indian high commission was asked to stop any survey or development activities and remove the ships from the area until maritime boundary between the two countries is settled by "mutual agreement”.
Asked about the Indian response, he said the envoy will send the note to New Delhi to convey Dhaka's concern and get backthe 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' trespass upon Bangladesh's territorial waters.
Touhid said the Indian envoy proposed that Bangladesh send a technical team to India as soon as possible to discuss the maritime issue as the two countries started talks on delimitation of the maritime boundary in September this year'after' a lapse of22 years.
The Indian survey ship was seen conducting exploration within the maritime area 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 that Dhaka send a team to India "as soon as possible".
He said the survey ships arc 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 counterquestion 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 are 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."
The foreign secretary said the proposal for discussion is "positive" and Bangladesh will send the technical team to Delhi at the end of January. But no date for the meeting has been proposed.
Meanwhile, Foreign Adviser 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 a settlement on the subwet, is reached-. ♦ * *
Meanwhile, Odhikar, a rights organisation, expressed its grave concern over illegal entry of three Indian oil and gas survey ships into Bangladesh maritime boundary on December 25.