BD, India to work on shared vision

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi Saturday vowed to collaborate in realising their respective visions of 'Smart Bangladesh' and 'Viksit Bharat' as they witnessed the signing of wide-ranging bilateral cooperation pacts.

The common consent was revealed by both the leaders after a bilateral meeting at the Hyderabad House in Delhi where the countries signed 10 MoUs and made an 11-point announcement on joint actions in vast vistas of mutual interests.

There was an agreement by both leaders to give "new direction, new impetus and new substance in strengthening our bilateral and sub- regional cooperation in order to turn this relationship into a transformation  partnership".

In the meeting both leaders jointly agreed to the India-Bangladesh shared vision for future enhanced connectivity, commerce and collaboration for shared prosperity.

"We agreed to collaborate with each other for the betterment of our people and countries. We charted the future course of action to ensure a smart Bangladesh by following Vision 2041 and Viksit Bharat by 2047," Sheikh Hasina told journalists in a briefing after the talks, led in by a one-on-one between the two newly reelected premiers.

Earlier, the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, said that both the countries made the commitment to cooperate with each other for making their visions, namely 'Smart Bangladesh by 2041' and 'Prosperous India by 2047', a success.

"This vision document of futuristic partnership seeks to realize our respective national development visions of Mixit Bharath Bharat 2047 and smart Bangladesh vision of 2041," said the Indian foreign secretary while briefing the press on the meeting outcome.

The eleven announcements made after the meeting are (i) e- visa for Medical Patients from Bangladesh (ii) New Assistant High Commission of India in Rangpur in Bangladesh (iii) New train service between Rajshahi and Kolkata (iv) New bus service between Chittagong and Kolkata (v) Commencement of goods train services between Gede-Darsana and Haldibari-Chilahati upto Dalgaon (vi) Construction of Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Sirajganj under grant assistance (vii) Commencement of export of 40 MW of power from Nepal to Bangladesh through Indian grid (viii) Joint Technical Committee for discussions on renewal of the Ganga Water Treaty (ix) Visit of technical delegation to Bangladesh for project on conservation and management of Teesta River inside Bangladesh (x) 350 training slots for Bangladeshi police officers (xi) Muktijoddha Scheme for medical patients with an upper ceiling of 8 lakh per patient

The 10 MoU accords signed in the meeting are: Shared Vision for India-Bangladesh Digital Partnership, Shared Vision for India-Bangladesh Green Partnership , MoU on Maritime Cooperation and Blue Economy, MoU between In-Space and Bangladesh's Ministry of ICT and Telecom, MoU between Ministry of Railways, Government of India and Ministry of Railways, Government of Bangladesh for railway connectivity , MoU for Cooperation in Oceanography between Bangladesh Oceanographic Research Institute (BORI) and India's National Institute of Oceanographic Institute (NIO) under CSIR , MoU between Defence Services Staff College (DSSC), Wellington and Defence Services Command and Staff College (DSCSC), Mirpur, for cooperation concerning Military education in the field of strategic and operational studies, Renewal of MoU for cooperation in Health and Medicine , Renewal of MoU between NDMA and Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief for cooperation in the field of Disaster Management, Resilience and Mitigation and Renewal of MoU for cooperation in Fisheries.

In her address, Sheikh Hasina said the engagements between the two countries in the highest level continue to contribute to the socio-economic development and for the economic emancipation of both the countries.

She said Dhaka and New Delhi agreed about a shared vision for digital and green partnership to ensure a sustainable future for both the nations.

"Both countries endorsed the 'Vision Statement' to guide us toward a peaceful and prosperous future. We agreed to have a shared vision for 'Digital Partnership' and 'Green Partnership for a Sustainable Future," she said.

The entire gamut of binary relationship that includes the sharing of water from common rivers, security and trade has prominently come for discussion during the bilateral meeting of two neighbouring countries, she said.

On a note of gratitude, Sheikh Hasina said that Bangladesh will always remain grateful to India for its people's sacrifice during the liberation war of Bangladesh.

And this is the main reason for the unique friendship between the two countries, she told the press.

She said they had very productive meetings discussing "politics and security, trade and connectivity, the sharing of water from common rivers, power and energy, and regional and multilateral cooperation, among other issues of mutual interest".

Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for inviting her to visit Delhi, she said this is her first bilateral visit to any country after the formation of new government in January this year.

She also invited the Indian PM to visit Bangladesh to see for himself how Bangladesh is making stride for development spree.

Mr Modi said that after successfully establishing road, rail and waterway connectivity both the countries were now focusing on digital and green development cooperation.

He mentioned that Bangladesh is a key part in India's 'Neighbourhood First', 'Look East' and Indo-Pacific Policy.

He also assured India's cooperation in Bangladesh's effort to modernize its defence forces.

This visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, he said, is special as this is the first state visit by a foreign head of government to India in the current tenure of his government.

Mr Modi said that India is committed to helping Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in materialising the dream of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman for a prosperous Bangladesh.

In a briefing after the bilateral meeting, Indian foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra said, "In terms of substance of the discussions, the conversations between the two Prime Ministers covered a full range of our bilateral engagement as also issues of regional and global importance."

Asked about the discussion on the longstanding Teesta issue in the meeting, he said that a technical team has been constituted essentially to look at the Teesta Water Restoration Project.

"Naturally, given that are close and friendly ties with Bangladesh cross -boundary River issue becomes important. This is also a subject matter of discussion under the Joint River Commission between the two countries. And these subjects do come up for discussion in today's meeting between the two leaders", he added.

"One of the subjects matter in this, which came up for discussion, was the conservation of Teesta River which requires a fair degree of, I should say, technical management. It's less about water sharing per se. It's more about the management of the water flows within the river," he added.

"As I said, these three vision documents will set the cause for new areas of partnership between India and Bangladesh in months and years ahead. The two leaders also agreed to intensify engagement on counterterrorism, counter -radicalization and management peaceful management of our long land border."

In terms of bilateral partnership on the river management, common rivers and their suitable management is of utmost importance... To this end, a joint technical committee to initiate discussions for renewal of the Ganges water-sharing Treaty of 96 has been formed.

"As you may all know, Bangladesh is a key part of India's sagas doctrine and the Indo-Pacific vision in this respect, the renewal of the MOU on maritime cooperation and blue economy that was signed and exchanged earlier today aims to develop our ocean-based blue economy and maritime cooperation.

"Defence Cooperation also figured between the two leaders, and they underscored the need and keenness to argument bilateral defence cooperation. And to this end, support plans for both modernization of Bangladesh armed forces, defence industrial cooperation between the two countries," he said.

Responding to a question he said border killing was discussed widely in the meeting ad India Connectivity continues to remain one of the central pillars of India-Bangladesh partnership. "We believe that connectivity can transform geographical proximity into new economic opportunities not just between India and Bangladesh but also for the entire region. In this respect, we are starting a new passenger train service between Rajshahi and Kolkata."

On CEPA, he said the number of tariff lines that get traded between the two countries and which actually constitute the bulk of the volume of India-Bangladesh bilateral trade are very crucial in the CEPA-negotiating framework.

"The expansion in the trade basket, what kind of tariff concessions do you provide to different HS code digits of different products -all these constitute a very important part of negotiations, which would then be spread out across various chapters of CEPA negotiations. I think both sides have held initial technical discussions to better understand how they want to position the respective set of goods perhaps even services and other trade facilitation related measures in CEPA"

On the discussions about the border killing issue he said, "This is an issue which we take we look at it with great sensitivity and we on our side have been taking all the requisite measures that are necessary to ensure that the fatalities are reduced. And this even includes the use of non lethal measures.

"But whenever our border-security forces sometimes get attacked at close quarters in Indian Territory by nefarious elements, then the measures in self-defence have to be taken and they do result sometimes in unfortunate loss of life. But what I want to mention is that we are very careful about it. We approach this matter with great sensitivity.

"And we naturally do that with the expectation that the border- guarding forces or both sides will take necessary measures on their respective sides. To maintain the sanctity of the border so that such even such incidents do not happen and are prevented."

On Rohingya issue, he said, "Yes, Rohingya issue was discussed... this has been an issue which India and Bangladesh have discussed periodically..."

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina returned home later on Saturday after wrapping up her two-day state visit to India.

She went to New Delhi on Friday at the invitation of her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.

A flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines carrying the prime minister and her entourage members landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 8:25pm.

Earlier, the flight departed Palam Airport in New Delhi at 6:20pm (Bangladesh Time).

Indian Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change and also Minister of State for External Affairs Shri Kirtivardhan Singh and Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Md Mustafizur Rahman saw the prime minister off at the airport.

This was the first bilateral visit by any head of government to India after the BJP-led alliance formed its government for the third consecutive time following the Lok Sabha elections. Besides, this visit was Sheikh Hasina's second trip to the Indian capital in less than 15 days, as she was among the dignitaries invited to Modi's swearing-in ceremony on June 9.

On the second day of the visit, Dhaka and New Delhi signed 10 Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs), seven of these new and three renewed to further consolidate the ever-growing relationship between the two neighbouring countries.

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