Dhaka's joining Asian Highway at stake

Bangladesh will remain out of the Asian Highway network to connect 32 countries with Europe, according to a cabinet meeting here which has decided not to sign the agreement without a change to the road map.

"We would not sign the agreement at this moment and turn Bangladesh a corridor of India," a cabinet member was quoted by The Daily Star as saying on Tuesday. "We have been fighting for not to give transit to that country."

According to the daily, the deadline for signing the agreement is Dec. 31 and the cabinet has decided to send a fresh proposal to bring change in the direction of the route. But the proposal is unlikely to be accepted unless Bangladesh signs the deal first.

Dhaka has been pressing for amending the route map and including the proposed Dhaka-Myanmar highway as part of the Asian Highway network.

But UNESCAP (United Nation Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific) suggested that Dhaka should sign the agreement first and propose changing the course of the route.

According to the rule, a country cannot have the right to suggest amendment to the route before ratifying the UNESCAP Convention on the Asian Highway.

The proposed Asian Highway map shows two roads entering Bangladesh from two points on the Indian border -- Benapole (in western Bangladesh) and Banglabandha (the extreme north of Bangladesh). The roads then run over Dhaka to exit through Tamabil (the border outpost in northeastern Bangladesh) to India. Bangladesh wants an additional route to Yangon via Tenknaf ( southernmost tip of Bangladesh) to be part of the Asian Highway.

Dhaka has been hesitating to sign the agreement with the existing road map because of its political stand against giving transit to India, the daily said.

At the cabinet meeting on Monday night, some ministers opposed the idea of joining the road network without getting assurance of changing the existing road map.

They observed that joining the current network would mean giving transit to India because both the proposed routes are coming from India and also exit to that country.

Experts, however, observed joining the highway network under the current plan does not mean giving transit to any particular country.

The Asian Highway is just a road network and separate agreements will be required to transport people and goods through the network, they said.

If Bangladesh does not want to give transit to India, it can refuse to sign such agreements and yet it can join the network and upgrade its roads to the Asian Highway standards, they said.

Source: Xinhua