BY TC News Desk
Agartala: April 10. The two-day third India-Japan Intellectual Conclave on North East India, Bangladesh and the Bay of Bengal in the Indo-Pacific Building on Partnerships in going to be held in Agartala on April 11.
Sources said that this conversation aims to highlight the larger framework of cooperation between ongoing bilateral cooperation between India and Japan and Bangladesh and how that can be leveraged for cooperation to secure a prosperous Bay of Bengal Neighbourhood.
“The North-eastern states are as such landlocked. But the region put together, enjoys close proximity to the Bay of Bengal. It is ecologically connected to the Bay of Bengal through a unique “mountain to sea” contiguous landscape. Connectivity and cooperation with the nations of the Bay of Bengal, in particular Bangladesh thus hold enormous possibility for trade, investment, cultural contacts and efforts towards holistic conservation of the fragile biodiversity of the region. A connected Bay of Bengal is also a key component of a Free and Open Indo Pacific. Such connectivity would be a concrete convergence of the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI) and Japan’s Free and Open Indo Pacific (FOIP) and BIG-B Initiative. It could also be a concrete milestone progress in BIMSTEC regional connectivity and be in total harmony India’s “Act East” and “Neighbourhood First” policies”, source said.
The source further said that the third edition of the dialogue will bring experts and policymakers to ideate on building industrial and people connectivity over the physical connectivity projects underway.
“It would make an assessment of the current state of connectivity and gaps between Bangladesh and Northeastern part of India. Border connectivity and facilitation, and identification of specific challenges, identification of specific issues that need to be addressed on a timeline to overcome these challenges; how to connect businesses, entrepreneurs, and local community stakeholders; and exploring India-Japan-Bangladesh collaboration in the region”, he said.
