NEW DELHI:
Taking ahead their collaborative fight against terrorism and radicalism, India and Bangladesh on Tuesday vouched to go to extra mile to fight such forces.
“Today, we stressed on cooperation against terrorism and radicalism. To keep the spirit of 1971 alive, it is also very important that we fight together with such forces, which want to attack our mutual trust,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi here in New Delhi.
Prime Minister Modi had a one on one meeting with his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina who is on a three day long State visit to India.
During their meeting both the leaders discussed various other issues including trade & commerce, connectivity, power, water sharing among others.
Asserting that sharing of water would benefit both Bangladesh and Northeastern parents of India, Modi said, “There are 54 rivers that pass through the Indo-Bangladesh border, and have been linked to the livelihood of the people of the two countries for centuries. These rivers, folk tales about them, folk songs, have also been witness to our shared cultural heritage. Today, we have signed an important agreement on sharing water of the Kushiyara river. This will benefit Southern Assam in India and Sylhet region in Bangladesh.”
Modi said that fruitful conversation also took place on enhancing cooperation in relation to flood mitigation. “India has been sharing flood-related data with Bangladesh on a real-time basis and we have also extended the period of data sharing,” said Modi.
Highlighting that Bangladesh has made remarkable progress under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Modi said, “In the last few years, our mutual cooperation has also increased rapidly in every field. Today, Bangladesh is India’s largest development partner and our largest trade partner in the region.”
Modi said that close cultural and people-to-people relations between the two countries have also steadily grown.
“We both believe that by taking lessons from the COVID pandemic and recent global developments, we need to make our economies stronger,” Modi said.
He said that with the expansion of connectivity between the two countries, and the development of trade infrastructure on the border, the two economies will be able to connect more with each other, support each other.
“Our bilateral trade is growing rapidly. Today, India is the largest market in Asia for Bangladesh’s exports. To further accelerate this growth, we will soon start discussions on the Bilateral Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement,” Modi said.
To increase the availability of affordable electricity in Bangladesh, both the leadership also unveiled the first unit of Maitree Thermal Power Plant today.
Officials said that both the countries are studying the technicalities to complete the much hyped Agartala-Akhaura railway connectivity at the earliest.
Meanwhile, to further bolster the cooperation between India and Bangladesh, the Central government has decided to train employees of Bangladesh Railway at the training institutes of Indian Railways including field visits.
This has been decided following a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between both the countries in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Shiekh Hasina.
To deepen the inter-governmental railway co-operation between two countries, two MoU have been signed on Tuesday.
“Following the visit of multi-sectoral scoping Indian Railways delegation to Bangladesh in April 2022 and the recent meeting between Minister of Railways of India and Bangladesh Railway Minister on June 1, 2022, to further promote friendly cooperation between the two countries and deepen the inter-governmental railway co-operation between the two countries, Two Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Bangladesh have been prepared. These MoUs have been signed and exchanged today during the visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India,” officials said.
The first MoU concentrates on “Training of Bangladesh Railway Employees in the training Institute of Indian Railways”.
“The purpose of this MoU is to provide the framework of cooperation and to facilitate training of employees of Bangladesh Railway at the training institutes of Indian Railways including field visits. This will include designing, coordinating, conducting seminars, workshops, classroom and field training. Indian Railways will also coordinate with officials of the Ministry of Railways, Government of Bangladesh, as required, including visiting and assisting in setting up and improving training facilities in Bangladesh and study requirements,” official said.
The second MoU concentrates on “Collaboration in IT Systems such as FOIS and other IT applications for Bangladesh Railway”.
“For all aspects of computerization like passenger ticketing, freight operations and control office, train inquiry system, digitization of asset management, HR and Finance infrastructure in Bangladesh Railway, Ministry of Railway, Government of India, through Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS), will offer IT solutions to Bangladesh Railway,” officials said.