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Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has told visiting Indian President Ramnath Kovind that the friendly ties between India and Bangladesh are crucial to the peace and prosperity of the region, said Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen.
Both Hasina and Kovind stressed the need to work together to ensure peace and stability in the region, he added.
The foreign minister was talking to the newsmen after the Indian President’s separate meetings with him and the prime minister on Wednesday.
According to the minister, connectivity, Rohingya issue, and post-Durga puja violence were among others, discussed during the meetings.
“During her meeting with the Indian President, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made it clear that in Bangladesh minority people are treated equally and her government is committed to ensuring the rights of the minority people.” Dr Momen said.
“The Indian President recalled the great sacrifices made by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and others of her family following the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and he himself learn a lot from this sacrifice,” the minister said.
In response, the prime minister said that she was grateful to the people of India, especially, to the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for providing shelter to her and her family during those troubled days, the minister added.
Terming the Indo-Bangladesh ties a role model for the world the Dr Momen said he told the Indian President that other countries can learn how to resolve unresolved issues through talks from these two neighbouring countries.
“I told him that through mutual cooperation these two countries can reach the pinnacle of prosperity in the coming years,” the foreign minister said.
The foreign minister told the Indian President that said both the countries are in talks about initiating an economic cooperation partnership and both of them agreed that it would help resolve any issues.
The Indian President thanked Hasina for sending mangoes for him and said that he brought sweetmeat, made in the Rashtrapati Bhaban for her.
It is President Kovind’s first trip abroad since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He will represent India as the guest of honour in Bangladesh’s 50th Victory Day celebrations on Thursday.
Earlier, Banglades accorded a red carpet welcome to President Ram Nath Kovind upon his arrival here on a maiden three-day State Visit during which he will hold talks with his counterpart and attend the golden jubilee celebrations of Bangladesh’s 1971 independence from Pakistan.
A 21-gun salute heralded the arrival of Kovind as he disembarked from the special Air India One flight along with his wife Savita Kovind and daughter Swati Kovind alongside an official delegation.
President M Abdul Hamid along with his wife Rashida Khanam received Kovind at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. Several senior ministers along with civil and military officials were present at the airport to receive Kovind.
The Bangladesh Army, the Navy, and the Air Force personnel offered him a guard of honour as part of the welcome ceremony at the airport from where he was escorted to the National Memorial at Savar on the outskirts of the capital in a motorcade.
President Kovind then placed wreaths in memory of Bangladesh’s nine-month-long 1971 Liberation War martyrs.
Kovind also visited Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Memorial Museum at the capital’s Dhanmondi area to pay homage to Bangladesh’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.