This visit of the Bangladesh PM has set a recalibration in the focus of our mutual ties. Towards more balanced trade and new opportunities for investment. A much more intensive and comprehensive engagement is on the cards after the Bangladesh Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina paid her second visit to India, since the recent formation of a third term for the Modi government.
Indian and Bangladesh officials signed as many as seven documents, ranging from concerns on digital partnership, green energy, maritime cooperation and blue economy, space cooperation, railway connectivity, oceanography, defence and strategic operation studies, and renewed three pacts on health and medicine, disaster management and fisheries. These are important for both countries.
The Indian side announced ease in inbound medical tourism, with the introduction of medical e-visa facility to nationals of Bangladesh. This will help Bangladesh citizens who come to India for their medical treatment in Indian hospitals. In 2023, about 16 lakh visas were issued to people of Bangladesh, these numbers are increasing, and it is estimated that about 20-30 per cent of them were for medical treatment.
A far-reaching decision was to send an Indian technical team to explore the conservation and management of Teesta River inside Bangladesh. These waters have aroused much interest on both countries and will help bring a much-needed resolution.
India announced it would set up establish an Assistant High Commission (AHC) office in Rangpur in north-west Bangladesh. This will be India’s fifth AHC; there are already AHCs in Rajshahi, Khulna, Chittagong and Sylhet. An AHC is an establishment in-between an embassy and a consulate.
Discussions were also held on strengthening cooperation in defence matters – from defence production to modernisation of armed forces. Both parties agreed to strengthen cooperation on counter-terrorism, countering radicalisation and peaceful management of the borders.
Bangladesh PM Hasina said: “As Dhaka and Delhi have started new journeys, we charted the future course of action, to ensure a smart Bangladesh by following Vision 2041 and Viksit Bharat by 2047.” She called India as a “major neighbour, trusted friend and regional partner”, stressing Bangladesh “greatly values our relations with India, which were born out of the War of Liberation” in 1971.
India has stepped up its neighbourhood first policy. In 2014, the PM had invited heads of state from the South Asian region, at his swearing in ceremony; he has done this again, in 2024. Overall, the response has been more favourable in recent months, with neighbours deciding upon stressing first the economic and cultural ties. The rest will follow, in due course, the importance of having good and friendly neighbours with mutual common interest.
