Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla in a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday in Dhaka conveyed Narendra Modi’s messages of ‘good wishes and goodwill’ to her and unveiled New Delhi’s new vision to take the relations forward.
This was the first meeting of the prime minister with any foreign dignitaries since March when the pandemic lockdown began. There have been no prior announcements or post-meeting usual briefings.
Shringla informed the prime minister about India’s plan to join the celebration of the ongoing Mujib Year, which is marred by the Covid-19 pandemic, by issuing a postal stamp on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
He discussed ways of mitigating the pandemic together with issues of cooperation including therapeutic and vaccine and revival of the post-Covid economy, a diplomatic source which has the knowledge of the meeting told Bangladesh Post.
Shringla proposed that India can introduce a ‘travel bubble’ system to continue business and medical travel by air between the countries during the pandemic lockdown.
India has this travel or air bubble mechanism with countries such as the US, the UK, Canada and the UAE in which New Delhi has signed bilateral agreements with those countries to allow commercial flights during pandemic.
Shringla conveyed that India would “continue to be a committed development partner of Bangladesh and for that they are looking at a roadmap for the next few years,” the source said, indicating that the visit was “in the context of increasing cooperation between the countries, especially during the Covid-19 period”.
The foreign ministers of the two neighbours are expected to have their pending joint consultative commission (JCC) meeting soon virtually. The last such meeting took place in Feb 2018.
Shringla arrived in Dhaka earlier on Tuesday amid media speculations in the relations between the two neighbours.
Some of those media reports suggest that Dhaka has been cozying up with Beijing amid pandemic as the bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh have come under some strain since last year when India passed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
China is known as India’s regional rival. Even before Shringla’s arrival, an Indian media reported that Prime Minister Narendra Modi ‘rushed his foreign secretary to Dhaka as China backs Bangladesh more aggressively’ as Beijing continues to support Bangladesh in different infrastructure projects.
This is Shringla’s first visit out of the country since the Covid-19 lockdown began.
The visit also comes on the heels of the new development such as the beginning of transshipment and starting of different types of train services to continue businesses between the countries during the pandemic.
During the two-day visit, he will “discuss and take forward cooperation on matters of mutual interest,” the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen earlier in the day brushed aside any speculations in the “deep relations” and told journalists after Shringla’s arrival that: “There is no scope of speculation. Our relationship is very deep and we have to nurture (time to time) to avoid any misunderstandings”.
“Our relation is related with our war of independence,” he said, adding that they would meet in the bilateral meeting on Wednesday.
Boosting relations further would be on the agenda, he said, adding that Covid-19 situation, vaccine development, and Rohingyas would be some of the issues they would discuss in particular.
Indian High Commissioner Riva Ganguly Das after Shringla’s meeting with the PM told a group of journalists that this meeting was the “commitment of both sides to take the relationship forward”.
She said Prime Minister Modi could not come at the beginning of the Mujib Barsho in March due to the pandemic. “So he sent the foreign secretary to convey his good wishes and good will”.
During the pandemic, the first transshipment of goods (iron and pulses) from Kolkata to India’s North-East took place through Bangladesh’s Chattogram port.
Besides, India handed over 10 railway locomotives to Bangladesh, and sent a train with 50 containers loaded with FMCG cargoes and fabrics to Bangladesh in such a first cross-border move.
Both Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen recently said that two countries have continued to script ‘a relationship of Golden Chapter’ guided by the two leaders – Hasina and Modi, despite the global crisis due to Covid-19 pandemic.
Jaishankar had also said that the “ongoing COVID pandemic has not slowed down the pace of our overall cooperation”.