Diplomatic Correspondent :
Both Bangladesh and India have agreed to work closer than ever before in every sector, from security and border management to mutually beneficial trade and investment flows.
The two countries have also agreed to work closely to further deepen and strengthen cooperation in the areas of common rivers and water resources management, IT and cyber-security, renewable energy, agriculture and food security, climate change and disaster management.
The commitment was made at the seventh round of Joint Consultative Commission (JCC) meeting held in New Delhi on Sunday.
The JCC meeting was co-chaired by Dr. S. Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister of India and Dr. A.K. Abdul Momen, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh.
Both the ministers expressed satisfaction that despite challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, both countries have worked closer than ever before in every sector to enhance bilateral and sub-regional multimodal connectivity, greater power and energy cooperation, developmental assistance and capacity building exchanges, cultural and closer people-to-people ties.
Both sides reiterated the importance of safe, speedy and sustainable return of the forcibly displaced persons from the Rakhine State of Myanmar, currently being sheltered by Bangladesh.
The two ministers appreciated that in addition to the high-level visits, there has been intensive engagements through various bilateral mechanisms and agreed to further enhance partnership-building efforts with renewed vigour and regularity.
In this regard, both ministers tasked their officials to accelerate cooperation, with further attention paid to addressing issues and finding durable solutions for the mutual benefit of both the peoples.
Acknowledging the excellent bilateral ties shared between the two countries, both ministers reiterated the importance of closer cooperation to expeditiously implement the Leaders’ decisions and to further deepen and strengthen mutual engagement across all sectors of bilateral cooperation.
The ministers welcomed the further strengthening of bilateral ties with the unprecedented visits by both the president and the prime minister of India to Bangladesh in 2021 to jointly commemorate three epochal events – the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman; the 50th anniversary of the independence of Bangladesh and the golden anniversary of India-Bangladesh diplomatic ties.
This was the first in-person JCC meeting convened since the onset of Covid-19 pandemic, with the previous edition held virtually in 2020.
The two ministers appreciated the efforts undertaken by both countries to jointly fight Covid-19.
The ministers comprehensively reviewed all areas of ongoing cooperation, including the implementation of decisions taken during the visits of President Ram Nath Kovind in December 2021 and of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March 2021, Virtual Summit between the prime ministers of the two countries in December 2020, as well as the last virtual meeting of JCC in September 2020.
It was agreed that the 8th round of India-Bangladesh JCC will be held in Bangladesh in 2023.
