Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Wednesday said the scheduled Joint Rivers Commission’s (JRC’s) meeting between Bangladesh and India has been deferred to some extent through a consensus to make it fruitful with better preparations.
“We had to defer the meeting through a consensus,” he told reporters adding that the meeting will be held when both sides will be ready to hold it with required information and data on the table.
Dr Momen said that this will depend on their further homework.
The Foreign Minister was talking to the journalists after a programme marking the celebration of the 25th anniversary of Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action at Central Shahid Minar, Dhaka University.
Dr Momen said the talks will not be fruitful without proper information and noted that they have a feeling that there are weaknesses in some areas.
Responding to a question on National Register of Citizenship (NRC), he said there is no link with the NRC regarding deferral of the JRC meeting.
The JRC meeting was scheduled to be held in New Delhi on Thursday to discuss a framework on sharing the waters of six common rivers.
The six common rivers are the Muhuri, Monu, Dharla, Khowai, Gumti and Dudhkumar.
Earlier, water sharing agreements of two rivers — the Teesta and Feni — were finalised in 2011, but no agreement was signed at that time.
The Foreign Minister reiterated that India is not pushing anybody into Bangladesh.
He said Dhaka requested New Delhi to inform Bangladesh if there is any Bangladeshi living in India illegally and there is a standard procedure to follow in that case.
Terming India a friendly country historically, Dr Momen hoped that India will maintain peace and stability what Bangladesh wants to see.
He said India termed NRC their internal matter and assured Dhaka that it will in no way affect Bangladesh.
source: UNB
