Commanders of Bangladesh, Myanmar meet to resolve border tension

Amid nearly three-month-long unrest along the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar, the border forces of the two South Asian neighbors on Sunday held a commander-level meeting to resolve the prevailing tension.

A seven-member team of Myanmar's Border Guard Police (BGP) attended the flag meeting held in Bangladesh's southern border town of Tekhnaf while an eight-member squad of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) represented the host country, according to a BGB statement.

The two sides held a "discussion on the present border situation."

Earlier, speaking to Anadolu Agency, BGB's Cox's Bazar Commander Col. Mehedi Hossain Kabir said Bangladesh wanted to resolve all prevailing crises with Myanmar through peaceful discussion.

"We always maintain contacts with Myanmar's border force whenever any untoward incident happens that affects our people along the border," Kabir said, adding that more meetings between the top-level border officials of both countries will be planned.

"We want to act in collaboration to curb all sorts of cross-border crimes and drug smuggling," the district-level chief of BGB added.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh's Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Md. Tajul Islam, addressing a function Saturday night on the occasion of the 99th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Türkiye in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, said that Bangladesh is hopeful of resolving all critical issues with Myanmar through dialogue.

For nearly three months, the Myanmar army has been fighting the rebel group, Arakan Army, across the border with Bangladesh, affecting the lives of Bangladeshi people and Rohingya living on the frontline.

Two Rohingya living in the No Man's Land of the two countries have been killed while one Bangladeshi national has been injured due to mortal shells fired by the Myanmar army and a landmine explosion during the fighting. Local authorities have also evacuated 30 families from the border areas.

The Foreign Ministry of Bangladesh recently summoned Myanmar's envoy to Dhaka several times and formally protested cross-border shelling by the Buddhist-majority nation's military.