Dhaka strongly protests on territorial claim of St. Martin by Myanmar

Dhaka summons Myanmar ambassador over border dispute

The Bangladesh Foreign Ministry summoned Myanmar’s ambassador earlier this week to protest the publication of maps that showed the country’s St Martin’s Island as being under Myanmar territory, according to an article in The Irrawaddy. According to the report, M Khurshed Alam, secretary of the ministry’s Maritime Affairs Unit, summoned U Lwin Oo to the ministry in Dhaka to lodge a “strong protest”. The ministry said it had found at least three government-run websites that had published the maps, which showed St Martin’s Island as belonging to Myanmar. The report said that Lwin Oo admitted that the publication of the maps had been a “mistake”. The island is located in the Bay of Bengal, at Bangladesh’s most southern tip, and close to the mouth of the Naf River, which acts as the official boundary between the two countries.  Tensions between Myanmar and Bangladesh have been particularly high since August 2017, when an army crackdown led to an estimated 700,000 people fleeing over the border into Bangladesh. The report said Myanmar officials did not respond to a request for comment.

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