The two-day technical meeting of Bangladesh and Myanmar on the delimitation of maritime boundary ended inconclusive as the parties failed to narrow down their differences on a number of issue including the process of demarcation in the Bay of Bengal and unimpeded passage for Yangon in the Naf river.

As the Dhaka meeting ended inconclusive, both the countries hope to sit again sometime in June in Myanmar to resolve the technical issues to pave the way for the final decision.

‘Myanmar proposed a joint survey on the maritime boundary delimitation which is not acceptable to us as the area in the sea is internationally recognized as part of Bangladesh,’ a source told after the meeting Tuesday evening.

Additional foreign secretary MAK Mahmood led an 18-member Bangladesh delegation to the talks and Muang Oo Lwin led a 10-member Myanmar delegation.

The source told newsmen that Dhaka had proposed making a joint inspection in this regard. Touching on the other unresolved issue at the meeting, he said Myanmar wanted unimpeded passage in the Naf.

Dhaka, however, did not agree to give any positive response to Yangon’s request arguing that it was already sympathetic towards Myanmar’s movement in the bordering river.

Officials said Bangladesh pressed for early settlement of the maritime disputes with Myanmar at the meeting by providing supporting data on its claim to the maritime area.

Dhaka opted to resume negotiations with Yangon as the delay in settling the demarcation disputes allowed India and Myanmar to creep into the Bangladesh waters.

An official said recent developments in bilateral ties with Myanmar had made it easier to put forward the issue for discussion.

Foreign ministry officials said Bangladesh had carried out three surveys after independence with the assistance of the United States, Germany and France.

‘The first survey was conducted by the Ocean Drilling Program of the United States, the second by Germany on a joint-venture initiative of the Geo-Scientific and Resources Institute and Bremen University and the third by College de France, that ended in December,’ said an official.

As for outcome of the surveys, the official said Bangladesh had received some ‘raw data’ from the US survey, but it had not received any data from the German venture.

He was, however, hopeful about the third survey, saying that the data would be available in eight months.

Another official said, ‘We hope to provide the United Nations with the data in favor of our claims earlier than the deadline of 2011.’

Bangladesh is preparing its case for gas exploration, but has not been able to invite tenders for block bidding as the maritime boundary has not been demarcated.

India, Myanmar and Bangladesh have not demarcated their waters in the Bay of Bengal.

India and Myanmar have agreed on an ‘equidistant’ boundary allowing both to explore gas in the Bay of Bengal.

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