Bangladesh and Bhutan today signed two agreements, including one on trade which will allow the two neighbouring countries to enjoy duty-free export of 90 items to each other. Another agreement is on allocation of a land at Dhaka city’s Baridhara diplomatic enclave to Bhutan for the construction of its embassy. Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed and Bhutan’s Economic Affairs Minister Norbu Wangchuk inked the agreement on trade for their respective counties, while Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and his Bhutanese counterpart Rinzin Do...

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday said the USA had tried its best to stop the January 5 election in Bangladesh, which was inevitable to continue democracy and constitutional rule. “They (USA) tried their best to make sure that this election (January 5) could not take place,” she said. The Prime Minister made the observation, responding to a question regarding the recent visit of US assistant secretary of state Nisha Biswal and her comments on Bangladesh, at a press briefing held at her official residence Ganabhaban to inform about her recent Ne...

A mechanism needs to be developed to keep tabs on the movement of cargo vessels from Bangladesh to Kolkata as part of the Indo-Bangladesh trade protocol, the Navy feels. After necessary formalities at Hemnagar on the Indo-Bangladesh border, the vessels - which are actually large barges - pass through the fringe of the Sundarbans to Namkhana and northward to Budge Budge and Kolkata. The Navy had wanted to keep a tab on these vessels using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) but they couldn’t be based at Behala due to problems of land...