Sagar Biswas:Cooperation in combating maritime crimes and conducting search and rescue operations came up for discussion at a meeting between top officials of Coast Guards of Bangladesh and India in Dhaka on Tuesday.A four-member high-powered team of Indian Coast Guard led by its Director General Admiral HCS Bisht, AVSM arrived in Dhaka on Monday apparently to discuss ways of enhancing cooperation between the two countries.For the first time both sides, the Bangladesh Coast Guard and the Indian Coast Guard [after signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on 6 June, 2015], held such a high-level meeting on some important issues of mutual interest. Of the prioritised issues, the training for Bangladesh Coast Guard personnel, cooperation on combating maritime crimes, maritime search and rescue and pollution response at sea were discussed during the meeting. After fruitful discussion, both sides agreed on the above issues, along with goodwill visit of coast guard ships between the two countries, official sources said.According to officials, the meeting was a step ahead in institutionalisation of cooperation between the two Coast Guards.Earlier, a smart contingent of Bangladesh Coast Guard gave guard of honour to the Indian Coast Guard chief when he arrived at the Bangladesh Coast Guard headquarters in the morning. Meanwhile, the Indian Coast Guard DG Admiral HCS Bisht also met Senior Secretary of Bangladesh Home Ministry Dr Mozammel Hoque Khan and Chief of Staff of the Bangladesh Navy Admiral M Farid Habib at their offices. Officials said, Admiral HCS Bisht will fly to Cox’s Bazar today [Wednesday] and he will visit Chittagong Naval Base next day [Thursday]. He is expected to leave Dhaka on Friday morning. Earlier on April 7, a high-level meeting was held in New Delhi between the Bangladesh Coast Guard and Indian Coast Guard where both sides also discussed the above issues.
