Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his visiting Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina will hold wide-ranging talks on Saturday to give a new momentum to the bilateral ties. Hours after Hasina began a two-day state visit to India, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met her and discussed various bilateral issues.
“Delighted to call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh this evening. Her State visit to India underlines our close and abiding ties. Appreciate her guidance on the further development of our special partnership,” he said on X.
Bangladesh is a key partner and trusted neighbour of India and PM Hasina’s visit will give a major boost to the “celebrated bilateral partnership”, external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
It is the first incoming bilateral state visit by a foreign leader after the formation of the new government in India following the Lok Sabha elections. The Bangladesh prime minister was received at the airport by Minister of State in the external affairs ministry Kirti Vardhan Singh.
Modi and Hasina are scheduled to hold wide-ranging talks on Saturday during which both sides are likely to firm up a raft of agreements providing for cooperation in several sectors.
Hasina was among seven top leaders from India’s neighbourhood and the Indian Ocean region who attended the swearing-in ceremony of Modi and the Union council of ministers at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on June 9.
Apart from holding bilateral consultations with Modi, the visiting leader is scheduled to call-on President Droupadi Murmu and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar.
The talks between the two prime ministers are expected to focus on taking the bilateral ties to new heights, said a source. The overall strategic ties between India and Bangladesh have been on an upswing in the last few years.
Bangladesh is an important partner for India under its “Neighbourhood First” policy and the cooperation extends to areas of security, trade, commerce, energy, connectivity, science and technology, defence and maritime affairs among others.
The achievements in the connectivity sector included the inauguration of the Maitri Setu bridge over river Feni in Tripura and the rollout of the Chilahati-Haldibari rail link. Bangladesh is India’s largest development partner with nearly one-fourth of New Delhi’s commitment under the Line of Credit has been made to that country.
The neighbouring country is India’s biggest trade partner in South Asia and India is the second biggest trade partner of Bangladesh in Asia. India is Bangladesh’s largest export destination in Asia, with approximately USD 2 billion of Bangladeshi exports recorded to India in 2022-23.
The two countries share 4096.7 km of border — the longest land boundary that India shares with any of its neighbours. There is active cooperation between various agencies of both countries to cooperate on police matters, anti-corruption activities and to combat illicit drug trafficking, fake currency, human trafficking, among others.
