Cooperation in energy sector is likely to dominate bilateral talks between the prime ministers of Bangladesh and Myanmar during their meeting in Yangon early next month, officials said on Saturday.
"The visit is also important as the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) of the UN is set to give a ruling in the middle of the next year on a maritime boundary dispute between the two countries," a senior official of the foreign ministry told the FE.
The ITLOS heard both the countries in September last on their respective claims on certain gas-blocks in the Bay of Bengal, he said. When its ruling comes, it will also be effective on a similar maritime-boundary dispute between Bangladesh and India.
However, ITLOS may also accept any sort of amicable settlement among the disputing countries, if there is any, senior diplomats said citing previous settlements of disputes between other countries.
"Every subject of possible cooperation in all fields and removal of all disputes would be discussed between the two prime ministers," Abul Kalam Azad, press secretary to PM Hasina told the FE.
"Shopping for natural gas seems to be the first priority of the visit though no formal agreement is likely to be signed now," said an executive of an international energy firm in Dhaka.
Bangladesh expects to put forward its intention to buy natural gas at the market price from Myanmar, which recently started tapping the natural resource from a large gas field in Rakhine state (formerly Arakan), near Bangladesh, an official of the ministry of power, energy and mineral resources said.
Bangladesh has been running short of 500 million cubic feet (mmcft) of gas against its requirement for 2.5 billion cubic feet.
The shortage keeps several gas-fired power plants out of generation, leading to, at least, 2,000 mega watt deficit during the peak-hours, when the demand shoots up to 7,000 mw, officials of the Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) said.
Bangladesh will assess the possibilities for setting up a power plant there and taking lease of arable land for cultivation, another government official said.
However, Myanmar did not reply to such a proposal about leasing out land to any foreign country for cultivation in Arakan. Such a proposal was earlier put forward by the immediate past army-backed caretaker government of Bangladesh.
Setting up of direct air and shipping links, easing procedures for issuingbusiness visas of the respective countries and introduction of other facilities for banking and financial transactions will also be discussed, foreign ministry officials said.
On political issues, Dhaka will also request Yangon to repatriate all of its registered and unregistered Rohingya Muslim refugees from the country where they have been languishing for decades.
There are some 28,500 registered refugees in two camps, run jointly by the government of Bangladesh and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
They are remnants of some 250,000 Rohingyas who fled Myanmar, alleging persecution by the then ruling military junta there in 1992.
Most of them were repatriated under the management of UNHCR. Meanwhile, some 300,000 Rohingyas -- mostly economic refugees -- intruded into Bangladesh and are living in scattered groups, causing multi-faceted socio-economic problems in the country.
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