Dhaka: India and Bangladesh on July 16 made "subtantial progress" towards enhancing bilateral co- operation but skirted the problem areas, including that of transhipment and provisions for non-tariff barriers in bilateral trade.

There has been "substantial progress" during the two days of Joint Economic Commission (JEC), Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha told reporters after signing the minutes of the 6th JEC meeting, held after a gap of six years.

Sinha said that the most important agreement was that both sides have decided to "remain engaged" and meet every year while a standing committee at the foreign secretary level will meet every six months to discuss the bilateral issues.

Sinha's Bangladeshi counterpart Morshed Khan said that a new chapter has been added to the Indo- Bangla relations as the JEC meeting culminated a series of high-level meetings held between the two countries over the last two years.

Both sides, however, failed to indicate any headway on the two major problem areas of transit issue and the non- tariff barriers which apparently was the reason for the meeting extending in to the second day on July 16 morning when they finally made a joint statement after twice postponing it on July 15 evening.

"We have discussed every issue including the transit and transhipment issues and we will continue to discuss this", Sinha said without giving any hint of any progress on it.

PTI