Jaishankar calls on Bangladesh PM Hasina, praises her sagacity, leadership

Dhaka, Mar 04: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday called on Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina here and conveyed the warm greetings of her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, and praised her sagacity and leadership that inspire the bilateral ties.

Jaishankar, who arrived here on a day-long visit to prepare the ground for Prime Minister Modi's visit to Dhaka later this month to participate in the celebrations of 50th anniversary of Bangladesh’s Independence and 50 years of Bangladesh-India diplomatic relations, held talks with his Bangladesh Foreign Minister A K Abdul Momen.

During the meeting with Hasina, Jaishankar conveyed Prime Minister Modi’s greetings to his Bangladeshi counterpart. “Thank PM Sheikh Hasina for receiving me today. Conveyed warm greetings of PM @narendramodi. Her sagacity and leadership continues to inspire our relationship,” Jaishankar said in a tweet.

According to India’s High Commission in Dhaka, the meeting took at Ganobhaban, the official residence of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. Jaishankar also presented her with two books on Bangladesh written by his late father K Subrahmanyam, a prominent international strategic affairs analyst. “These are amongst the first books written on Bangladesh in early 1972. He would’ve been proud to see Bangladesh’s remarkable progress,” Jaishankar said in another tweet.

Jaishankar, at a joint press conference with his Bangladeshi counterpart Momen said: “I would also like to express our admiration and pride, as your closest neighbour and friend, at Bangladesh’s graduation from LDC (Least Developed Countries) status: it is truly a tribute to your miraculous socio-economic progress, and a reflection of the statesmanship and leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina”.

"We are working so hard to expand our relationship in all dimensions, ranging from security, trade, transport and connectivity, culture, people to people ties, energy, joint development of our shared resources and defence.

"Our comfort levels are now so high that we have shown that there is no issue that we cannot discuss and resolve through amicable dialogue," Jaishankar said. It is a matter of satisfaction that despite the pandemic, the interactions and consultations continued unabated between the two countries, he said.

"We have done a Virtual Summit in December last year, a Joint Consultative Commission which the two of us did in September, meetings of Foreign Secretaries, Power Secretaries, Home Secretaries, Police Chiefs, BSF-BGB and defence visits. Our Commerce, Water Resources and Shipping Secretaries are due to meet soon. This demonstrates the commitment of both sides to progress the relationship," he added.