Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh and India have expressed their firm determination to work together to fight counter violent extremism and terrorism, said visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Thursday.
He came up with the remarks while talking to journalists after the bilateral meeting with his Bangladeshi counterpart Md Shahidul Haque at the State Guest House, Padma in the city.
Jaishankar said the two countries will further strengthen their existing structure and closely work together in a bid to fight against counter violent extremism and terrorism.
“I told my counterpart that I am here also to convey the government of India’s strong support for the government of Bangladesh in the matter of terrorism and extremism,” the Indian Foreign Secretary said.
He called terrorism and militancy a regional issue that ‘directly concerns us as neighbours’ and the two countries would work ‘closely and bilaterally’ in combating the menace.
“This is an issue which is of a direct concern to as never and we are in touch and we will work bilaterally and closely together on the matter, said the Indian Foreign Secretary.
He said during the Indian Prime Minister’s Dhaka visit in June 2015, the two countries signed a number of agreements and Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs), while the two foreign secretaries have reviewed the progress of those agreements.
“We have (come out with) a very good progress report . . . we really moved forward in a number of areas,” he said, adding that eight of 14 commitments reached during the summit were fulfilled by now.
The Indian Foreign Secretary said that recently the two premiers had a video conference when they inaugurated broadband connections from Bangladesh to India and power supply from India’s state-run Palatana plant to Bangladesh.
He said India now looked in the possibility of supplying more power to the next door neighbour with engagement of the private sector while New Delhi also reviewing possibilities to extend cooperation in energy sector as well in exporting diesel and exploring possibilities to export LPG.
“We also looked at line of credit that India offered to Bangladesh . . . I can say that we looked at the totality of our bilateral cooperation in all most every areas,” Jaishankar said, pointing out that the last two months appeared ‘very significant’ for the progress in bilateral ties.
Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque told the briefing that they had discussed all aspects of bilateral relations during the talks. “As you know, we are active, dynamic and have close relationship with India,” he said.
Shahidul Haque said terrorism will be fought together and for this existing mechanism between the two countries will be further strengthened.
“Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to visit India in October to attend BRICS conference. And the Prime Minister accepted the invitation in principle,” he said.
India will host the eighth annual summit of BRICS from October 15-16 in Goa, in its capacity as chair of the influential bloc comprising five countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Earlier in the morning, the Indian Foreign Secretary held a meeting with a group of eminent citizens at Hotel Sonargaon.
During the meeting, he said Bangladesh and India can resolve their pending bilateral issues through maintaining good relation.
He came to Dhaka on Wednesday at the invitation of the Bangladesh Foreign Secretary and met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
