Bangladesh offers to open all transit routes to landlocked northeast India

Bangladesh offered yesterday to open all transit routes with India and restore the situation prevailing before the 1965 India-Pakistan war, as the relationship between the two countries has taken a turn for the better after Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina returning to power last year.

Bangladesh high commissioner Tariq Karim said his country is willing to open up all its roads, railways and waterways to the northeast of India, which have remained closed since the 1965 India-Pakistan war.

Speaking at an international seminar on 'From Landlocked to Landbuilt: North East India in BIMSTEC' at the North East Hill University, Karim said, ''We are ready to take on our destiny as the natural bridge between two dynamically thriving regions - South and South east Asia.''

The two-day seminar was also addressed by Thailand Ambassador Kirit Kraichitti and his Myanmar counterpart U Kyi Thein as well as India's minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor.

Bangladesh has offered India a connection through its territory to the landlocked northeastern Indian states as well as to Thailand and Myanmar, It has also indicated that it would allow the use of its Chittagong and Mongla ports to service the northeastern states.

''Bangladesh is ready to help not only to reconnect India's northeastern states with the rest of the mainland India, but also enable Nepal and Bhutan to gain access to the sea, and enable India reach Myanmar and Thailand overland through easy terrain,'' Karim said.

These ports will be opened not only to India, but Bhutan and Nepal as well, he said.

The Bangladesh envoy, who was handpicked by Sheikh Hasina for a posting in India, said that both the countries will have to rebuild the infrastructure since it has not been used for nearly 35 years.