Bangladesh-India ties a role model for rest of the world: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said bilateral relations between Bangladesh and India have appeared as a “role model” of good neighborliness for the rest of the world, expressing her firm belief that this cooperation will also continue in future.

“As a result of multifaceted and multidimensional cooperation, our bilateral relations have become a role model of good neighborliness for the rest of the world. I strongly believe that this momentum will continue,” she said while jointly inaugurating four projects with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi through a videoconference.

Sheikh Hasina said over the last decade, two countries have witnessed remarkable progress on cooperation in different conventional and unconventional areas like security, power, trade and commerce, energy, connectivity, infrastructure development, environment, renewable energy, education, culture, people-to-people contact and health.

At the same time, she said, the two countries have expanded cooperation in newer areas e.g. blue economy and maritime cooperation, peaceful uses of nuclear energy, cooperation in outer space, internet bandwidth sharing, cyber security etc.

The schemes opened by the two prime ministers are supply of Double Decker and Single Decker AC and Non-AC Buses and Trucks to Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (under the 2nd Line of Credit), 36 Community Clinics in 5 Districts (Jamalpur, Sherpur, Habiganj, Sunamganj and Brahmanbaria) under grant financing of the Government of India; 11 Water Treatment Plants in Bhandaria Pouroshova, Pirojpur District (under grant financing of the Government of India) and National Knowledge Network (NKN) Extension to Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh premier joined the videoconference from her official Ganabhaban residence in Dhaka, while Narendra Modi joined it from her office in New Delhi.

They jointly inaugurated the four projects by unveiling the e-plaques. At the function, short videos on the projects were screened.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen and Indian External Affairs Minister Sushama Swaraj also spoke joining the videoconference.

Sheikh Hasina reiterated Bangladesh’s firm commitment to stamping out terrorism, saying that it will never allow its land to be used by any terrorist organization.

“We remain steadfast in our resolve to root out the scourge of terrorism from our region and beyond through bilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation,” she said.

She added Bangladesh maintains a ‘zero tolerance policy’ against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and will never allow its land to be used by any terrorist organisation.

Source: bss