Across Asia: Bangladesh/Myanmar

Maritime row escalates

Bangladesh has sent a naval patrol to a stretch of the Bay of Bengal disputed with Myanmar after ships from the neighboring nation began oil and gas exploration activities, a Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry spokesman said in Dhaka yesterday.

Dhaka also summoned the Myanmar envoy to lodge a formal protest and to urge the neighbor to remove its vessels and equipment from the site until the row over the sea border was resolved, he said.

Bangladesh and Myanmar have been holding on-off talks for years to demarcate their borders in the Bay of Bengal which is considered rich in gas reserves.

But Myanmar had already begun exploration activities in the disputed area, the Bangladeshi foreign ministry said.

(China Daily 11/03/2008 page7)