External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday. Sheikh Hasina underlined the importance of neighborly connectivity and offered to hand over the port of Chittagong, the main port of her country, for India's use, which would benefit the northeastern states such as Assam and Tripura. Jaishankar, who arrived here on Thursday on a brief official visit, extended an invitation to Sheikh Hasina to visit New Delhi on behalf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Jaishankar tweeted, "Thank you Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for her warm welcome. He personally congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Under the guidance of both the leaders, our bilateral relations are progressing strongly.
Sheikh Hasina stresses on increasing connectivity
During the meeting, Prime Minister Hasina said that both the countries will have to further enhance connectivity. His press secretary Ehsanul Karim told PTI that PM Hasina told Jaishankar that there was a need to increase connectivity for mutual benefit, while it would particularly benefit India's northeastern region in accessing Bangladesh's southeastern Chittagong port. He said that if connectivity is increased, the northeastern states of India like Assam and Tripura can get access to the port in Chattogram.
The Bangladesh Prime Minister mentioned that the initiative was taken to restart cross-border routes between Bangladesh and India, which were halted during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 when Bangladesh was part of Pakistan. Karim said several bilateral and international issues were discussed during Prime Minister Hasina's more than half-hour-long meeting with Jaishankar. Jaishankar later held positive discussions with his Bangladeshi counterpart AK Abdul Momen and then jointly briefed the media.
Discussion on bilateral issues between Bangladesh and India
"We have agreed that our close neighbor partnership is growing rapidly," he tweeted. Our shared effort will be to take this forward. I look forward to hosting him for the Joint Advisory Commission. Bangladesh's foreign ministry said the two ministers discussed bilateral issues between Bangladesh and India. They expressed satisfaction about Bangladesh-India cooperation, resolved to further strengthen bilateral ties, and emphasized regional stability for overall socio-economic development.
Jaishankar said that during his conversation with Prime Minister Hasina, he invited Prime Minister Modi to visit India as per his convenience. Karim said, I told that we look forward to his (Sheikh Hasina) visit to India at his convenience. He said that several issues related to bilateral relations as well as regional and global issues were discussed. During the meeting, Karim told reporters that he expressed happiness over the current state of bilateral relations between the countries.
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