Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have expressed satisfaction over the friendly relations between Bangladesh and India. The heads of government of the two countries have agreed to further the friendly relations of the two countries in the bilateral meeting. After the meeting, Indian leader Narendra Modi expressed his assurance to advance this Bangladesh-India relationship by tweeting.
The meeting between Sheikh Hasina and Narendra Modi took place on Friday (September 8) evening. The meeting was held at the official residence of the Prime Minister of India at Lok Kalyan Marg in New Delhi at 7 pm local time (7:30 pm Bangladesh time).
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on Twitter informing about the meeting. There he wrote, “There was a fruitful discussion with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The progress of India-Bangladesh relations in the last 9 years is very satisfactory. Our discussions included connectivity, commercial tie-ups and many more.’
Apart from the bilateral meeting, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a private meeting. Modi expressed deep gratitude to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh for resolving the outstanding issues of the two countries through discussion in the bilateral meeting as well as contributing to ensuring the existing peaceful situation in the northeastern region of India.
Foreign Minister Dr. Hasina-Modi held a press conference after the bilateral and private meeting. AK Abdul Momen. He said that various issues including Teesta were discussed in Hasina-Modi meeting. However, there was no talk about the election of Bangladesh. They discussed privately for a while. He does not know anything about whether the Bangladesh election was discussed in this private discussion or not.
Momen also said that Sheikh Hasina recalled India’s contribution in Bangladesh’s independence war. He also thanked Narendra Modi for inviting him to the G20 summit.
He thanked the Prime Minister of India for bringing up issues of concern to the Global South at the G20. Narendra Modi also applauded Hasina for actively participating in the G20.
Momen said that Sheikh Hasina said in the meeting that India is the second largest trading partner of Bangladesh. He also requested Modi to ensure supply of daily commodities from the country.
Meanwhile, the South Asia Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the two heads of government expressed satisfaction over the existing deep relationship between the two countries and agreed to take effective steps to further this relationship. The Prime Minister noted that after his successful state visit to New Delhi in September last year, there has been tremendous visible progress in various areas of bilateral interest. Both Prime Ministers expressed satisfaction over this. In the meeting, the Prime Minister informed the Indian Prime Minister about the success achieved by Bangladesh in various socio-economic fields. The Prime Minister of India appreciated the strong leadership of the Prime Minister for the tremendous progress of Bangladesh.
The Prime Minister of India emphasized on resolving the outstanding issues between the two countries through talks at the formal level. Apart from this, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sought the cooperation of the Prime Minister of India for the speedy repatriation of the Rohingya people.
3 MoUs with India
On the eve of the Prime Minister’s visit, three MoUs were signed between the two countries. Among these, a memorandum of understanding has been signed between Bangladesh and India’s Council of Agricultural Research to jointly work on agricultural research and education. On the other hand, an agreement titled ‘Cultural Exchange Program 2023-25’ has been signed to strengthen cooperation between the two countries in the arts, literature and cultural sectors. Apart from this, another MoU has been signed between Bangladesh Bank and India’s NPCI International Payments Limited to facilitate transactions between the two countries.
Earlier on Friday morning, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on a special flight of Bangladesh Airlines for New Delhi, the capital of India. After landing in New Delhi, the Prime Minister was welcomed at the airport by the Union Minister of State for Railways, Ms. Darshana Zardosh. His visit is to attend the three-day-long summit of the Twenty20 that started on Friday.
The host country India has invited 9 countries including Bangladesh to participate as guest countries in this year’s G-20 conference. Apart from Bangladesh, other countries are – Egypt, Mauritius, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Spain and United Arab Emirates. Bangladesh is the only country in South Asia to be invited to the conference based on the existing relations between India and India.
