A battalion-level flag meeting between Border Guard Bangladesh and Myanmar Border Guard Police on Sunday decided to improve bilateral relations between the two countries, while the Myanmar side regretted the recent incidents of shelling along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

‘We are committed to helping each other in any need. We have also decided to work together to protect the bordering people on both sides,’ the Border Guard Battalion-2 commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Sheikh Khalid Muhammad Iftekhar, told a press conference following the five-hour long flag meeting at Shah Parir Dweep in Teknaf, Cox’s Bazar.

He said that the meeting stressed the need to take necessary steps to boost communication, confidence, and trust between the border guarding forces of the two ‘friendly countries.’

The Bangladeshi side protested against the recent firing, shelling, landmine explosions and movement of Myanmar military helicopters along the Bangladesh border.

Lieutenant Colonel Iftekhar, who led the eight-member Bangladesh delegation, said that the Myanmar side regretted the recent events along the border, especially the loss of life and damage to properties inside Bangladesh.

‘We have assured them that Bangladesh never allowed anyone to use its territory for illegal activities. And it will not happen in the future. They are satisfied with our assurance,’ he added.

The Myanmar military, also known as Tatmadaw, has been battling the Arakan Army near the Bangladesh border in northern Rakhine State.

The seven-member Myanmar delegation, led by police Lieutenant Colonel Ye Yai Soe, informed the BGB that they would solve their internal problem in Rakhine, according to the BGB commander.

The BGB commander said that their Myanmar counterpart was apprised about drug smuggling and its menacing effects on Bangladesh, and in reply, the Myanmar side said it had intensified anti-drug drives.

At the press conference, BGB Ramu sector commander Colonel Azizur Rouf thanked the Myanmar border force for responding to Bangladesh’s call to hold the meeting.

He said that such meetings create new traditions to bolster relations.

The BGB officials termed it a routine meeting, which followed a regional-level meeting held three months and a half ago in Maungdaw, a town in the Rakhine state of Myanmar.

On September 16, a Rohingya boy was killed and five others injured as a mortar shell allegedly fired by the Myanmar army exploded at a Rohingya camp located at the Zero Point of the border.

Bangladesh has filed diplomatic complaints since August about fighter jet and drone flights over its territory and mortars and machine gun rounds landing across the border.

In an apparent attempt to improve relations and boost regional security, Myanmar’s Lieutenant General Phone Myat visited Bangladesh Army chief General SM Shafiuddin Ahmed in Dhaka in the past week.

In a tweet later in the day, John Quinley, senior human rights specialist at Fortify Rights, criticised Bangladesh for its engagement with the Myanmar army, saying that ‘there is no reason’ for it.