Cabinet approves interpretative notes between India, Bangladesh

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday gave its approval for the Joint Interpretative Notes (JIN) on the agreement between India and Bangladesh for the promotion and protection of investments between the two countries.

The JIN would impart clarity to the interpretation of the existing agreement between India and Bangladesh for the Promotion and Protection of Investments (BIPA).

Joint Interpretative Statements play an important supplementary role in strengthening the investment treaty regime. With increasing Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) disputes, issuance of such statements was likely to have strong persuasive value before tribunals.

"Such pro-active approach can foster a more predictable and coherent reading of treaty terms by arbitration tribunals," an official statement said here.

The JIN includes interpretative notes to be jointly adopted for many clauses, including, the definition of investor and investment, exclusion of taxation measures, Fair and Equitable Treatment (FET), National Treatment (NT) and Most Favoured Nation (MFN) treatment, expropriation, essential security interests and settlement of disputes between an investor and a contracting party, the statement said.

The cabinet was also apprised of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Bangladesh on cyber security cooperation which was signed on April 8.

The MoU on Cyber Security was signed by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of India and the Bangladesh Government Computer Incident Response Team (BGD e-Gov CIRT), Bangladesh Computer Council of Information and Communication Technology Division under the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and Information Technology of Bangladesh, an official statement said.

The MoU intends to promote cooperation between CERT-In and BGD e-Gov CIRT and includes exchange of information on cyber attacks and cyber security incidents, cyber security technology cooperation, exchange cyber security policies and best practices and Human Resource Development in this field in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations of each country and on the basis of equality, reciprocity and mutual benefits.

The MoU between CERT-In and BGD e-Gov CIRT would be implemented through a duly set up Joint Committee on Cyber Security.

--IANS

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