After mortars landed on Bangladesh's soil as the Myanmar military attacked the Arakan Army (AA) in Rakhine State in recent months, soldiers from Bangladesh and Myanmar's junta met to mend ties.
The north-western Rakhine region in Myanmar, which borders Bangladesh, has seen a number of airspace violations over the past few months as border guards there have fought local militants.
Yet high-level military personnel from the Bangladesh's Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) and Myanmar Border Guard Police (BGP) met at a major refugee camp at Cox Bazar on Oct 30.
A few days earlier, Lt Gen Phone Myat, from Myanmar's Command Bureau of Special Operation, met Bangladesh Army Chief Gen SM Shafiuddin Ahmed at the Army Headquarters in Dhaka on Oct 26.
Interesting enough, in the same week, elite Bangladeshi police under the Armed Police Battalion (APBN) launched a crackdown against suspected criminals and insurgents after a rise in attacks on Rohingya community leaders in refugee camps in Ukhia.
At the meeting on Oct 30, the Myanmar military apologised to their counterparts in Bangladesh and promised that airspace violations will not happen again.
Yet Myanmar's BGP team's leader, Col Ye Wai Soe still lamented that Bangladesh is now sheltering members of Myanmar's separatist groups who have crossed the border and are committing crimes there.
The meeting follows protests by Bangladesh against the violation of airspace and the landing of shells inside Bangladeshi territory.
In a fresh turn of events, Bangladesh and Myanmar militaries decided to warm ties. Both sides discussed cooperation such as joint-border patrols, information exchanges and enhancing more military cooperation.
But the highlight is both sides' focus on the prompt repatriation of the Rohingya, an issue that Dhaka has asked international community to pressure Myanmar over for the past few years, without much of a response.
Some 750,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh in 2017 as a result of a military crackdown. Not one Rohingya travelled back to Myanmar.
Since that time, the population of refugees has soared and the Rohingya have become a domestic issue for Bangladesh. Some 30,000 Rohingya children are born every year in Bangladesh on average.
As such, the Rohingya population has risen to more than 1.2 million, according to the United Nations.
Bangladesh during the past five years have asked the world community as well as Asean to help on Rohingya's repatriation, without meaningful responses.
The issue of Rohingya fizzled out as the world community shifted focus to human rights violations and refugees from the war in Ukraine. Asean also seems to have lost influence over Nay Pyi Taw.
Asean's demand that the junta government to follow the so-called 5PCS to defuse its internal politics and violence, received the cold shoulder from the Tatmadaw, not to mention its pressuring of Myanmar on the Rohingya issue. That left Bangladesh having to deal with the Rohingya alone.
The turn of events reflects the inevitable need for dialogue.
Despite spats over the border, it is undeniable that both countries have a long-standing relationship and shared history dating back generations.
In terms of geopolitics, the 271km Bangladesh-Myanmar border is strategically significant for Bangladesh. Dhaka sees the country can establish routes through Myanmar to access China and Southeast Asian countries to the south if this border and Rohingya issues are resolved.
Relations between Bangladesh and Myanmar were formalised on Jan 13, 1972.
However, due to the presence of several unresolved issues such as Rohingya refugees and maritime border demarcation, the scene has changed in an unfavourable way, and ties between the neighbours have not always been as friendly as envisioned.
Apart from India, Myanmar is the only other country on Bangladesh's border. Therefore, Myanmar could be of strategic benefit to Bangladesh as a land-bridge to China and Southeast Asia countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Myanmar is also a country with abundant natural resources: timber, and natural resources such as gas, oil, and stones.
It is feared that the acrimonious bilateral relationship can pose threat to national security. Without close collaboration, human trafficking and narcotics problems along border will only thrive.
To address certain common bilateral concerns, military training might help. These could take place under the umbrella of UN peacekeeping operations (UNPKO) and disaster management cooperation.
This military collaboration is expected to be the prelude to more collaborations between Nay Pyi Taw and Dhaka in areas such as medical cooperation, sport, adventure activities and tourism.
Also high on agenda is the Tatmadaw and Bangladesh armies may collaborate on disaster management systems.
Natural disasters have become a major threat in the Bay of Bengal. For instance, Cyclone Sitrang last month hit communities in India and Bangladesh while Cyclone Nargis in 2008 brought Myanmar to its knees, forcing the junta government to the open country and accept help from Asean's disaster management's task forces.
Bangladesh, India, and Myanmar could work together. Both Myanmar and Bangladesh have opportunities to collaborate on environmental schemes to reduce environmental degradation.
While Myanmar is alienated by its civil war and is growing more isolated, the relationship between Nay Pyi Taw and Dhaka again shows that dialogue is still an option in dealing with Myanmar.
The most effective strategy to progress together and maintain a peaceful relationship is to talk and enhance people-to-people connections. This is especially essential when the countries in question are neighbours.
Samina Akhter is a Dhaka-based freelance writer, columnist of the 'New Age' newspaper in Bangladesh and women's and human rights activist at Bangladesh Mohila Parishad, a human rights civic group.
