Indian foreign secretary Vijay Keshav Gokhale said Monday his country had requested Myanmar to implement the Dhaka-Naypyidaw agreement on the repatriation of the 'displaced people'.
He also said that India would supply another 500 megawatts of power to Bangladesh's national grid by June this year.
Mr Gokhale, who arrived in the city on Sunday, disclosed this while talking with reporters at state guest house Padma after the foreign secretary-level meeting at the state guest house Meghna that lasted for three hours.
About India's role in resolving the Rohingya crisis, India's top diplomat said that his government has been fully supportive of the efforts being made to resolve the crisis, including the early repatriation of the displaced people.
He noted that India is supporting a socio-economic project in Myanmar named Rakhine State Development Project under which his country is engaged in the construction of pre-fabricated housing in order to meet the needs of the returning people.
He also announced the second phase of the humanitarian assistance for the Rohingya camps to help those address the challenges of upcoming monsoon.
Briefing reporters on the bilateral talks, Bangladesh's foreign secretary M Shahidul Haque said India had agreed to Bangladesh's position that the forcibly-displaced Myanmar nationals needed to be repatriated to their homeland in a "sustainable and dignified manner."
Bangladesh and India reiterated their commitment not to allow the use of their soils against each other's interest and 'zero tolerance' against terrorism and violent extremism, Mr Haque said, adding Bangladesh had called for following the principle of non-use of lethal weapons to help nix the border killings.
He said the Indian side assured Bangladesh of solving Teesta water sharing problem. But the Indian foreign secretary did not mention the issue in his written statement.
Calling the present Indo-Bangladesh bilateral ties "at its best", Mr Gokhale highlighted India's interest to further the relations in various fields.
He congratulated Bangladesh on behalf of the Indian government for its graduation to a developing nation from an LDC (Least developed country), saying this would contribute to the economic development of the entire region.
Reviewing the progress of bilateral cooperation on the economic front, Mr Gokhale said that India-Bangladesh bilateral trade has almost tripled in the last 10 years from US$ 2.75 billion in fiscal year 2008-09 to $ 7.52 billion in fiscal 2016-17.
"Today, Bangladesh is India's biggest trade partner in South Asia," he said.
Mr Gokhale also pointed out that India encouraged much greater investment by Bangladeshi companies to take the advantage of the huge domestic market in India under its flagship 'Make in India' programme.
On the development cooperation, he said over the past few years, India had extended over $ 8.0 billion to Bangladesh on the softest possible terms to help develop the neighbouring country.
"This is the largest amount of credit that India has ever committed to a single country. Progress in implementation of the Line of Credit (LOC) projects has been satisfactory with most projects under the 1st LOC having been completed and projects under the 2nd and 3rd LOCs progressing at a rapid pace" he added.
About enhancing cooperation for greater regional connectivity, he said promoting economic integration and fostering linkages and connectivity between our two countries through cross-border trade, transport, telecom, cyber, energy links etc. is a policy priority for both countries.
About energy cooperation, the Indian top diplomat said that Bangladesh is currently importing about 660mw of power from India and the supply of another 500mw is expected to begin in 2018.
On the day, Dhaka and New Delhi signed the MoU for the construction of the India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline under Indian grant-financing from Siliguri to Parbatipur.
"This will allow uninterrupted supply of diesel to northern Bangladesh from Numaligarh Refinery," he said.
He said the political leaderships of both Bangladesh and India had exhibited "unequivocal" and "unambiguous" political intentions for the betterment of the bilateral relations in the last 10 years.
"The relationship between countries, in particular neighbours, can never be excellent if there is lack of political will on either or both sides," he said, adding "In our case, we have been fortunate to have political leaders on both sides who are willing to go the extra mile to take the relationship to newer heights for the benefit of our people, our countries and the region."
He noted that since 2010, more than 100 agreements have been signed between the two countries, including 68 agreements in the last three years alone.
Narrating the challenges for bilateral relations, he said one such challenge is terrorism, extremism and radicalisation, which both countries are committed to fighting off.
On the issue of border killings, he said the number of deaths at the border had reduced significantly over the years due to the pro-active efforts of border-guarding forces of the two countries.
The recent initiative of the BSF and the BGB to declare a stretch of border to be a "crime-free zone" is a welcome confidence-building measure, which will "go a long way in achieving our shared objective of a de-criminalised border".
Referring to India's move to relax the visa regime for Bangladeshi people, he said Bangladeshi nationals today constitute the largest number of visitors to India as the Indian High Commission in Dhaka issued 1.4 million visas in 2017, double the number since 2015's.
Mr Gokhale noted that India and Bangladesh needed to sustain and enhance the current levels of cooperation to serve our common interests.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh and India signed six memorandums of understanding on different areas of cooperation.
The implementation of the friendship pipeline between Numaligarh and Parbatipur, the cooperation between Prasar Bharati and Bangladesh Betar, setting up of an Urdu Chair at Dhaka University and an addendum to the GCNEP-BAEC interagency agreement are among the MoUs both countries signed.
The Indian foreign secretary met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Ganabhaban in the evening before he left for New Delhi.
Mr Gokhale also had a meeting with foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali in the morning.
mirmostafiz@yahoo.com