Kaladan Press
Dated: Tuesday,
March 22, 2005
4-Nation Economic Forum Unborn for the Lack of New
Delhi Support
Chittagong,
March 22: The Kunming
initiative to form an economic forum with Bangladesh,
China,
India
and Burma (BCIB) fell flat for the lack of New
Delhi support, said Chinese Ambassador Chai Xi on 20th
March 2005 at a roundtable meeting held in Dhaka.
The initiative is named after Kunming,
a Chinese city, where the first meeting was held in 1999. Though it was taken
by non-governmental bodies, the Kunming
initiative was expected to result in an inter-governmental organization.
"The Kunming
initiative was supposed to emerge as a new economic forum named BCIB in the
region. But, India
did not gear up itself accordingly in the last meeting of the initiative, the
Chinese envoy to Bangladesh
said responding to a question at a roundtable in the city.
Bangladesh Institute of Law and
International Affairs (Bilia) organized the meet at
its Dhanmondi office on 20th March.
Xi said a total of five
preparatory meetings were held under the initiative, but the forum could not be
formed, because India
was not ready for it.
According to sources, after Kunming
in 1999, three meetings were held in Delhi,
Dhaka and Rangoon
in preparation for the quadripartite BCIB. The fifth meeting took place in Kunming
in August last year, and that was the last.
In that last meeting, delegations
from Bangladesh,
China
and Burma
were very much eager to transform the initiative into a permanent body, but the
position of India
was lukewarm, said a Bangladeshi researcher, who participated in the meet.
A high official of the Indian
High Commission in Dhaka took part in the roundtable,
said that he was not aware of India's
position in this regard, as he was not present at the latest meeting under the
initiative. ##
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