PM Modi and Sheikh Hasina witness exchange of agreements, and inaugurate of bilateral projects.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday held wide-ranging talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina on further deepening overall ties between the two countries in diverse areas including defence and security, trade and connectivity. According to reports, the focus of the talks was to significantly expand the areas of cooperation between the two countries.
Around six-seven pacts are likely to be signed in areas like transport, connectivity, capacity building and culture when the two prime ministers meet at Hyderabad House. The Bangladeshi Prime Minister is on a four-day visit to India.
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar, in a weekly press conference, said that the talks will revolve around trade and connectivity, development cooperation, people to people contact, culture and other issues of mutual interest.
PM Modi had previously met the Bangladeshi premier on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month.
Here are the highlights on PM Modi-Sheikh Hasina meet in Delhi:
- I am glad that I got an opportunity to inaugurate three more bilateral projects between India and Bangladesh today. In one year, we have inaugurated total 12 joint projects.
- The aim of our special friendship is the happiness and progress of our people.
- The pipeline we inaugurated today has many advantages. It makes the process more eco-friendly and cost-effective and makes it possible for operations to be all-weather and round-the-year.
Sheikh Hasina briefs media on her bilateral meeting with PM Modi
Volume of trade between India and Bangladesh is nearly $10 billion: Sheikh Hasina
On Friday, Ms Hasina met the business community in India abd urged them to invest in Bangladesh.
"We also want to see trade and investment together where Indian big investors can set up industries in Bangladesh to the southeast Asian countries taking advantage of the improved connectivity between us," she said while addressing a business meeting jointly organised by business chambers ASSOCHAM, CII and FICCI.
"The trade and investment between our two countries are increasing and volume of bilateral trade has steadily grown during the past years. The balance of trade, however, is still largely in India's favour. The volume of trade between two countries is nearly $10 billion. In 2018, Bangladesh was India's eighth largest export destination with $8.8 billion export and our export to India also crossed $1 billion mark for the first time last year. So, the progress is visible, but there is lot of scope for further deepening our relations in the area of trade and investment," Sheikh Hasina said.
PM Modi has assured the Bangladesh premier that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) would have "no impact on Bangladesh" and there is no need to be worried about it, according to a report.
He gave the assurance at a meeting with Sheikh Hasina at Lotte New York Palace hotel on the sidelines of the 74th UN General Assembly on Friday, the Daily Star reported.
Sheikh Hasina will meet President Ram Nath Kovind at 4:30pm at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Earlier today, Sheikh Hasina met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
PM Modi and Sheikh Hasina had previously met each other on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month.
Around six-seven pacts are likely to be inked in areas like transport, connectivity, capacity building and culture when prime ministers of India and Bangladesh meet on Saturday to discuss ways to strengthen bilateral ties.
Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said three projects will be jointly inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina on Saturday, but did not elaborate further.
"The relations (between India and Bangladesh) have never been so close. Naturally, the focus of discussion will be bilateral relationship. When I say bilateral relationship, we are talking about the next steps the two countries should take now to get the relationship in a different trajectory," Mr Kumar said.