Staff Reporter :
The First Meeting of Joint Working Group (JWG) to operationalize the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Blue Economy and Maritime Cooperation in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean Region was held on Monday in the city.
According to a Foreign Office statement, both sides discussed possible areas of cooperation under this MoU for further strengthening the bilateral relationship. Discussions pertained to Cooperation in capacity building and training, sharing of information and joint research in several areas including marine biotechnology, green tourism and hospitality, marine aquaculture, deep sea fishing, maritime pollution response, ocean disasters and services etc. were also discussed for mutual benefit.
Both the sides agreed to meet at regular intervals to monitor the progress of cooperation activities being undertaken under this MoU.
The MoU in this regard was signed during the visit of the Prime Minister of India to Bangladesh in June 2015.
The Bangladesh delegation was led by Rear Admiral Md. Khurshed Alam (Retd.), Secretary (Maritime Affairs Unit), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while the Indian Delegation was led by Sujata Mehta, Secretary (West), Indian Ministry of External Affairs.
The Indian delegation called on the State Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh, Shahriar Alam and also met the Foreign Secretary, Md. Shahidul Haque.
