Foreign Secretary Meet: We Expect Practical Steps Foreign secretaries of India and Bangladesh will meet in Delhi on 17th of this month. News papers have reported that India will seek transit facility and greater cooperation in bilateral security from Bangladesh at the foreign secretary level bilateral talks .Bangladesh on the other hand will raise unresolved bilateral issues such as demarcation and sharing of water of common rivers and demarcation of maritime borders between the two countries."We have discussed transit in different forums. We are interested in transit and will remain interested," said Indian High Commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty following his meeting with Foreign Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury at his office yesterday. Criticizing the politicization of the transit issue, the Indian envoy told journalists, "It's an economic issue, not political at all. Look at the rest of the world. I don't understand why this is being made a political issue in Bangladesh." India's transit access through Bangladesh has been a sensitive issue in Bangladesh and India has been demanding the facility for long for a more economically viable access to its seven northeastern states, also known as the Seven Sisters. Pinak said India and Bangladesh have some pending issues, but cooperation in bilateral security is one of the primary concerns. "There are elements in both the countries who have caused certain security breaches and there have been bomb blasts," he said adding, "Connectivity [was] found between organizations here and there. So, we will be seeking greater cooperation on security issues so that both the countries can fight the menace of terrorism together."Asked whether he has raised the issue of repatriating Anu Chetia to the Bangladesh foreign adviser, Pinak said, "We repatriated some Bangladeshi wanted people hiding in Kolkata. We also need to get some people back from Bangladesh.""The name you mentioned has been there. But there are more names what we have given to Bangladesh government and expect that Bangladesh will catch them and hand them over to us," he added.In response to the same question, Iftekhar told The Daily Star that he had no discussion over the Chetia issue with the Indian high commissioner. "Pending issues like sharing of water and fixing river borders will be raised at the talks which will initiate talks over the important issue of maritime demarcation," he said adding that the issue of cooperation in bilateral security would also be discussed at the talks.While putting the emphasis on resolving the issues, the Indian envoy said, "We will also focus on bus and train services as to how to improve the services and increase frequency.” India and Bangladesh are neighbors and there is no escape that we must have good-neighborly relations. In the past relations have not been always good. India’s attitude to different regime is different .This should not be. Bangladesh should not be judged by which regime is there in Bangladesh. India should not be biased to any special party. Transit is no doubt a touchy issue now because of India’ failure in the past to consider Bangladesh transit to Nepal and Bhutan which are true transit issue , not like corridor type transit issue. We feel this issue will require time to solve and it should be resolved by the people’s elected government. A package proposal is better, one package for all the transit issues together of the two countries, another package for all the water resource issues.As gregards Anup Chetia, the issue is different from the issue of common criminals, this should be looked into in a different frame work. In any event we wish progress in the talk.