New Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Pranay Verma on Thursday said that India and Bangladesh are “important partners”, not just in South Asia, but also in the world.
Lots of things we do together, he said, giving an example of G-20 meetings of which India is the president and Bangladesh is participating as an invited ‘guest country’.
The High Commissioner was speaking at an innovative show of Sampriti Bangladesh titled ‘Meet the Society’ with the participation of people from all strata of life including politicians, academics, doctors, journalists, businessmen, and cultural personalities.
Sampriti Bangladesh is a platform of eminent citizens who promote secular ideals to overcome the divides in the society.
The event marked the Maitri Diwas which is December 6 when India recognised Bangladesh as an independent country, 10 days before the actual victory in the war against Pakistan in 1971.
Deputy speaker of the parliament Shamsul Huq Tuku was present as the chief guest at the event presided over by cultural personality and journalist Pijush Bandyopadhyay, who is the convenor of Sampriti Bangladesh.
Eminent physician Prof Dr Mamun Al Mahtab Swapnil, member secretary of Sampriti Bangladesh, moderated the show.
India and Bangladesh relations have come a long way since 1971 with the two countries resolving many issues from land boundary to maritime boundary peacefully.
The bilateral relationship today is multifaceted as the cooperation covers not only traditional areas like trade, commerce, development partnership, security and border management but also newer areas such as clean energy, IT, and space technology.
India is also a development partner of Bangladesh. In fact, Bangladesh is today India’s largest development partner, with credit lines worth over 8 billion dollars. More than 80 percent of the projects under these lines of credit are for infrastructure and connectivity.
The High Commissioner said the destinies of the two countries are “interlinked”.
“Our prosperities, our future wellbeing are interdependent. This is the sentiment in which we advance our relationship,” he said.
The deputy speaker of the parliament said those who opposed Bangladesh in 1971 and sided with Pakistan are still active today.
“We need to be careful about that. They will challenge us. And those challenges will come from generation to generation. We need to remain united to face that for the sake of our people, our countries, and our region,” he said.
Pranay Verma presented his credentials as the Indian High Commissioner of Bangladesh to President Md Abdul Hamid on October 28. He was the ambassador of India in Vietnam before joining Dhaka.