India and Bangladesh signed a raft of agreements on Tuesday during a visit to Dhaka by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, including one to resolve long-running border disputes. The South Asian neighbours concluded a land boundary agreement to demarcate their 4,000 kilometre shared border and sort out 162 “enclaves” – small pockets of one country’s territory surrounded by the other.
“Both of our countries have now demarcated the entire land boundary and have resolved the status of enclaves,” Singh said at a ceremony with Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka.Hasina said the deal was a “historic understanding” which would resolve the countries’ lingering border issues. “For neighbours, borders cannot have walls, but windows for collaboration and exchange.
