Number of agreements to be exchanged during Hasina’s visit: India

The Indian external affairs ministry has said that a number of agreements are to be exchanged between the two sides during the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from Oct 3.

Apart from that, the two prime ministers will also jointly inaugurate three bilateral projects via video link.

However, the Indian side did not specify those agreements. Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen will brief the media about the visit on Wednesday.

The Indian ministry said Hasina will pay an “official visit” to India from Oct 3-6 at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

This will be her first visit to India since the general elections in Bangladesh and India.

The external affairs ministry said she will call the president and hold bilateral discussions with Modi on Oct 5.

She will also take part as chief guest at the India Economic Summit organised by the World Economic Forum on Oct 3-4.

Bangladesh and India are currently enjoying the best of relations.

Over 100 agreements have been signed in the last 10 years, 68 of which were concluded in the last three years alone.

The decades-old land boundary and maritime issues have been solved, but the equitable share of the Teesta river water remains unresolved.

The Assam’s citizenship exercise or NRC is also seen as a worrying factor for Bangladesh by many. They argue that those finally become non-citizens of India may be pushed into Bangladesh territory.

But India maintains that it is their internal issue and by no way will affect Bangladesh, a promise that Foreign Minister Momen earlier said they trust.

Officials in the Bangladesh foreign ministry indicated that all the issues between the neighbours including the Rohingya crisis will come up in the meeting.

A senior official told bdnews24.om that more than 15 deals related to connectivity, culture, technical cooperation and trade and investment might be signed during the visit.

One of the key MoUs will be between the commerce ministries on the ‘establishment of a framework of cooperation in the area of trade remedial measures’.

MoUs are expected to be signed between the ministries of youth and sports, two standard testing institutions, ministries of jute and textiles, for coastal surveillance system, on cooperation between film development authorities, on Standard Operating Procedure on the use of Chattogram and Mongla Port for movement of goods to and from India, disaster relief, establishment of permanent office of the Exim Bank in Dhaka, ICT sector cooperation and cultural exchange, among others.