India on Sunday assured Bangladesh of resolving all the pending issues as Bangladesh has long been waiting to see the signing of Teesta water sharing deal.
“We’re aware of the outstanding issues. We assure you that we’re working to resolve them,” Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told reporters at a joint briefing.
Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said water resources must act as a ‘uniting force’ between the two countries. “We discussed the issue of sharing of water of common rivers, including the signing of Teesta Water sharing agreement,” he said.
Minister Ali said they recalled the statement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 8 that the Teesta agreement will be signed during the current tenure of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Prime Minister Modi.
“We sought India’s technical and financial support to carry out a feasibility study on the long-term options for Bangladesh to ensure optimum use of Ganges water,” he said.
Both the ministers witnessed the signing and handing over of three bilateral documents which include capacity building in SME, sale-purchase agreement between Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation and Numaligarh Refinery of India.
The Foreign Minister also handed over the instrument of ratification for framework agreement on international solar alliance that Bangladesh ratified in August 2017.
Sushma said India attaches the utmost importance to its relations with Bangladesh and their partnership today touches upon virtually all areas of human endeavour.
“Our relations are based on fraternal ties and reflective of an all-encompassing partnership based on sovereignty, equality, trust and understanding that goes far beyond a strategic partnership,” she said.
In the 4th Joint Consultative Commission, they discussed the common challenges that the two countries face today.
“One such challenge is that of terrorism, extremism and radicalisation and we’ll continue to fight this scourge together and along with other like-minded countries,” said the Indian External Affairs Minister.She said both the countries are determined to protect their societies from the threat of ideologies of hate, violence and terror by adopting a zero tolerance policy and a comprehensive approach in fighting violent extremism and terrorism at all levels.
Minister Ali said Bangladesh-India relations now stand on a historic new height due to initiatives taken across sectors, namely trade, connectivity, security, border management, water, power and energy, development cooperation and people to people exchanges, among others.
Both the sides reiterated the strong commitment not to allow use of their soils against each other’s interest and zero tolerance against terrorism and violent extremism.
The two countries laid emphasis on bringing down the number of deaths at border to zero.
Minister Ali said the Indian side agreed to supply 340 MW more electricity from Tripura through Comilla grid in addition to current import of 600 MW of electricity.
Both the countries agreed that BBIN Motor Vehicle Agrement will be implemented between Bangladesh, India and Nepal through exchange of letters keeping provision for Bhutan to join later.
It was agreed that MoU for trilateral hydropower cooperation among Bangladesh, India and Bhutan would be signed soon.
India also agreed to facilitate import of electricity to Bangladesh from hydro projects in Nepal.
Sushma Swaraj arrived here on Sunday on a two-day official visit to discuss bilateral issues aiming to take forward the ties to the next level.
Mahmood Ali received her at Bangabandhu Air Force base on her arrival at 1:41 pm.
Earlier, Indian Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Arun Jaitley paid a three-day official visit to Dhaka from October 3 at the invitation of Finance Minister AMA Muhith.
