Modi, Hasina meet, sign pacts as ties poised for next level

Resmi Sivaram/Agencies

Prime Minister Narendra Modi received his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina on Saturday in New Delhi. The meeting with Hasina, who is on a four-day state visit to attend the India Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum, came a week after the leaders held discussions on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

The leaders sign six to seven pacts that would strengthen their bilateral ties. They will also inaugurate a number of projects that benefit both countries.

Modi and Hasina discussed and signed pacts on trade, transport, connectivity, development, capacity building, culture and other issues of mutual interest, officials said.

The projects they would launch include one for the cross-border supply of LPG to the northeast, officials said. The pipeline will allow India to transport liquified petroleum gas to Tripura through Bangladesh.

Other projects are a skill development institute in Bangladesh to benefit small and medium sector entrepreneurs, a students’ home at the Ramakrishna mission in Dhaka.

Hasina’s government also allowed transit facilities through Bangladesh to New Delhi, acceding to a longstanding Indian demand to access its landlocked north-east through Bangladeshi territory.

Both steps helped boost ties between the neighbours. One of her first moves was to hand over Indian insurgents who were taking shelter in Bangladesh.

The Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar has said six to seven documents were expected to be signed in the fields of transport, connectivity, capacity-building and culture. Kumar said “relations have never been so close” and two sides will focus on “next steps to take the bilateral relationship into a different trajectory.”

He clarified that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam has not been an irritant in Indo-Bangla relations because on Thursday Sheikh Hasina approved the NRC, and said that she was satisfied with Modi’s assurance that Bangladesh need not fret over the citizens’ list.

On Thursday evening at a reception hosted by Bangladesh’s envoy to India, Syed Muazzem Ali, Hasina said that she doesn’t see a problem with the exercise.

“I had a talk with PM Modi. Everything is okay.” Some 1.9 million people found themselves left out of the final version of the NRC in Assam, and Dhaka has been concerned by statements by senior BJP leaders that these people will be deported to Bangladesh.

Kumar played down the NRC as a “Supreme Court-mandated ongoing exercise,” saying, “The due process has to be completed first, (including) several appellate processes before you reach that stage.”

Teesta water sharing is a critical issue for the neighbouring nation.

Sheikh Hasina arrived in the Indian capital on Thursday on a four-day visit to India to further intensify bilateral relations between the two countries. Her meeting with Modi took take place at 11:30am at Hyderabad House and was followed by an official lunch at 1pm.

Hasina is expected to call on President Ram Nath Kovind at 4:30 pm at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

On Sunday, Sheikh Hasina will meet Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Hasina will leave for Dhaka on Monday morning at 8 by a VVIP flight of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines.

“A relationship setting the template for bilateral cooperation PM @narendramodi warmly welcomed Bangladesh PM #SheikhHasina on her visit to India. The leaders have met for the second time in 10 days exemplifying the strength of India-Bangladesh ties,” tweeted MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar.

Earlier, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar called on Hasina on Saturday morning.

“Taking our ties to the next higher level. EAM @DrSJaishankar had a warm conversation with Bangladesh PM #SheikhHasina. Reaffirmed India’s highest priority to her relations with Bangladesh,” he posted.

The two sides are expected to sign six to seven MoUs in areas of connectivity, capacity-building and culture after the talks at Hyderabad House.