Dhaka, Delhi vow to collaborate on Smart Bangladesh, Viksit Bharat

Bangladesh Prime Minister Shekh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Saturday vowed to collaborate with each other to make the visions of their respective countries—'Smart' Bangladesh’ by 2041 and ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047—a success.

It was revealed by both the leaders after the bilateral meeting at the Hydarabad House in Delhi, where both the countries also signed 10 memorandums of understanding and made 11 announcements.

Both the leaders agreed to provide new direction, new impetus, and new substance to strengthening bilateral and sub-regional cooperation in order to turn this relationship into a transformational partnership.

In the meeting, both the leaders jointly agreed to the India-Bangladesh's 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 a briefing after the meeting.

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

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

Eleven announcements were made after the meeting, which 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 MoUs 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.

Sheikh Hasina:

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

She said Dhaka and New Delhi agreed about a shared vision for digital and green partnerships to ensure a sustainable future for both 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 relationships that includes sharing of water from common rivers, security, and trade has prominently come for discussion during the bilateral meeting of two neighbouring countries, she said.

Hasina said that Bangladesh will always remain grateful to India for its people’s sacrifice during the liberation war.

And this is the main reason for the unique friendship between the two countries, she said, adding that India is the biggest neighbour of Bangladesh.

She said they had very productive meetings where 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, came up for discussion.

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

She also invited the Indian prime minister to visit Bangladesh to see for himself how Bangladesh is making strides in its development efforts.

Narendra Modi:

In his address, Mr Modi said that after successfully establishing road, rail and waterways connectivity, both the countries are now focused on digital and green development cooperation.

Mr Modi mentioned that Bangladesh is a key part of India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’, ‘Look East’ and Indo-Pacific Policy.

He also assured India’s cooperation in Bangladesh’s effort to modernise its defence forces.

He said that this visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina 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 materialise the dream of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman for a prosperous Bangladesh.

Briefing by Indian foreign secretary

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

Asked about the discussion on the 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 become 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 discussions 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 reverse management, common rivers and their suitable management is of utmost importance. Before India and Bangladesh. To this end, a joint technical committee to initiate discussions for renewal of 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”.

“Defense Cooperation also figured between the two leaders, and they underscored the need and keenness to argument bilateral defense cooperation. And to this end support plans for both modernisation of Bangladesh armed forces, defense industrial cooperation between the two countries,” he said.

Responding to a question, he said border killings were discussed widely in the meeting. 

"Connectivity continues to remain one of the central pillars of India Bangladesh partnership. We believe that connectivity can transform 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 the 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 even such incidents do not happen and are prevented,” he added.

“On the Rohingya issue, he said, yes, the Rohingya issue was discussed; this has been an issue which India and Bangladesh have discussed periodically at different levels of introduction.”

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