Warm relations with India to continue: PM

Voicing her high hope of keeping up good relations with India, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said any problem with neighbouring countries, including India, could be resolved through bilateral talks.
“You may have differences over policy, it’s quite natural. If there’s any problem you can solve it through bilateral discussions,” she said.
The Prime Minister was interacting with Japanese media at the National Press Club of Japan on the last day of her four-day official visit to the East Asian nation.
As a Japanese journalist asked whether there would be any hindrance to Bangladesh-India relationship after Narendra Modi became the new Prime minister as he is accused of being very nationalistic and tough on the minority Muslim people in India, Hasina said India is Bangladesh’s next door neighbour.
The Prime Minister hoped, “I believe we’ll be able to keep up a good relationship …..he (Modi) has his own ideas, now he has become Indian Prime Minister and I hope as a Prime Minister of India he would play his due role so that all neighbouring countries have good relations.”
She said, “I know how to protect my people’s safety and wellbeing… I know India is a big country and maybe we’re small geographically. But, considering (our) population, we’re a big country. Bangladesh is an independent, sovereign country and definitely we’ve to ensure independence, sovereignty and security of our people.”
In this connection, she mentioned the signing of the Ganges water sharing treaty with India in her first tenure in 1996 overcoming the longstanding dispute as well as signing of the CHT Peace Accord, according to UNB.