Indian External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar picked connectivity as a “big goal” with Bangladesh in the next 20 years to transform the whole region with Japan as a possible third country to get cooperation in this regard.
“If we can get connectivity right between India and Bangladesh, I can tell you the entire logistics and whole geo-economics will change. The Bay of Bengal will look different,” he said, replying to a question after his meeting with foreign minister Dr AK Abdul Momen at the state guesthouse Padma.
Jaishankar’s daylong visit was a preparatory mission ahead of the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Dhaka on March 26 and 27.
This will be the Prime Minister‘s first travel outside India since the Coronavirus pandemic as well as his second as PM to Bangladesh.
It comes at a special moment as both countries mark the Mujib Barsho, 50 years of Bangladesh‘s Liberation and 50 years of our bilateral relations.
“Fifty years (of Indian-Bangladesh bilateral relations) are over, think for, no not fifty years think next twenty years,” Jaishankar said before sharing his connectivity thoughts.
He said today there is no domain where we are not working today.
“Our relationship is really 360 – every part of human activity in some form we are doing something. The more we do, the more possibilities open up,” he said.
“I would say most of all let us look at connectivity. I would pick connectivity as a big goal (for our relationship),” he said, adding that he was also impressed to hear the thoughts of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on connectivity.
‘Connectivity is productivity’ is what the prime minister believes as conveyed by Dr Momen during the meeting.
“It’s really impressed me,” Jaishankar said.
“To me, both of us believe that this is possible. Today we spent a lot of conversation on connectivity. We should involve third countries. We actually feel…we talked about Japan as a possibility since both of the countries have good relationships with Japan, and Japan is involved in connectivity projects in the Bay of Bengal.”
The second goal for the next 20 years will be the human aspect of the relationship which is people-to-people contact, education, health, and culture because end of the day relationship between the counties are the relationship between the people, he said, adding that people-to-people contact will give additional impetus to our cooperation, the external affairs minister said.
Jaishankar also met Prime Minister Hasina and inaugurated a new cultural center at Gulshan-2 where the Indian house was located, during his brief visit.