No major differences of opinion on pending issues with Bangladesh: Shringla

Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Tuesday said there is no major difference in opinions regarding the pending bilateral issues between Bangladesh and India, which have been enjoying the "golden chapter" of relationship.

"We discussed the issues, but we found no major differences … There are only areas to take forward, we are looking forward to how we can work on [resolving the issues]," he told the media after holding a bilateral meeting with his Bangladesh counterpart Masud Bin Momen.

The two foreign secretaries appeared in front of the media together after a 50-minute bilateral talk at the Foreign Service Academy in the capital.

"There are multi-dimensional issues [between Bangladesh and India] and we have discussed all the pending issues … It was a fruitful discussion," Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Masud said.

"We also discussed how we can make our border peaceful," he added.

The Bangladesh foreign secretary said they also discussed connectivity, green energy, green technology, e-commerce and how both the countries can go forward.

About Covid cooperation, the foreign secretary said both sides reiterated that it would continue as "Bangladesh cannot be safe if India is not safe and also India cannot be safe if Bangladesh is not safe".

The Indian foreign secretary arrived in Dhaka on Tuesday morning on a two-day official visit to discuss bilateral issues and also to help prepare the state visit of Indian President Ram Nath Kovind from 15 to 17 December.

Shringla said people of both India and Bangladesh sacrificed their lives, their blood for the independence of Bangladesh. "This is very rare. We are proud of your victory, we are proud to be part of your celebration," he added.

He said Indian Prime Minister Modi visited Bangladesh last March and the Indian president is scheduled to be here this month and it will make a record that the Indian president and premier visited the same country in the same year.

Besides, Shringla said both the Indian prime minister and the president choose Bangladesh for their first destination to visit after Covid stalemate which illustrates the golden chapter of relationship that the two neighbours have been passing through.

About the bilateral meeting, he said they also discussed some forward-looking areas like green energy, renewable energy and other sectors involving the employment opportunity for the youth generation of both the countries.

Shringla said the connectivity projects between the two countries are going on very well as five out of the six rail connections have already been restored and the sixth one will be completed by this year.

He said India wants to promote eco-friendly railway and waterway connectivity with Bangladesh.

The Indian foreign secretary lauded Bangladesh's economic success and said it is something that India is very proud of. "We are proud of being your development partner and from that perspective, we will be holding more conversations," he added.

The Indian foreign secretary is scheduled to call on Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today.

The Indian foreign secretary said New Delhi and Dhaka are working on making Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to India the earliest considering the Covid situation, as she was invited by Narendra Modi in March last.

The Indian foreign secretary arrived here just a day after both the countries celebrated "Maitri Diwas" (Friendship Day) in 18 other cities worldwide including Dhaka and New Delhi as testimony to the unique foundation of friendship over the past 50 years.

India doesn't want any issue with Bangladesh: Momen

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen on Tuesday said India does not want to take any move that could create an issue to crack the ongoing excellent "golden chapter" of Bangladesh-India bilateral relations.

"They also do not want to see any incident that could make any kind of crack in the Bangladesh-India relation," he told the media after the visiting Indian foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla called on him at the foreign ministry.

Momen said, in brief, they discussed a number of pending issues between Bangladesh and India, including border killing and water sharing.

"They gave us a formula to check unwanted incidents in the frontier," he added.

The foreign minister said Dhaka also urged India to expedite the process of holding the next Joint Rivers Commission meeting to resolve the water sharing issues between the two countries.

Momen said they also discussed how the ongoing relations between the two nations would be put forward in the days to come.