Delayed Transit
Following the joint communiqué and agreements between India and Bangladesh in January this year, the Bangladesh government has welcomed negotiations on transit facilities with Nepal.
The transit agreement had been signed between the two countries in 1976, but had been pending for three decades and could not be implemented due to a number of reasons. Modalities for implementing the long-standing agreement were finally agreed upon on 14 July in a commerce secretary-level meeting in Dhaka. This meeting, which is supposed to be held annually and hosted alternately by Kathmandu and Dhaka, has been very irregular until now, further delaying the implementation of the agreement – the last meeting (before the one in July) was held in 2007.
According to the agreement, landlocked Nepal will be able to use the Mongla seaport in Khulna district (via Banglabandh, Panchagarh, Thakurgaon, Syedpur, Rangpur, Bogra, Natore, Dhashuria, Pakshi, Kushtia, Jhenidah and Jessore) to ship goods to Western and European markets. Participants of the commerce secretary-level meeting which ended on July 15 have also agreed to work on road and rail links between Nepal and Bangladesh, as well as follow up on potential bilateral trade and investment.