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3 MoUs inked at Modi-Hasina bilateral meet
The meeting was part of Modi’s interactions with heads of state and government attending the G20 Summit
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina on Friday discussed political and security cooperation as the two countries signed three agreements, including one on linking their digital payment mechanisms.
The meeting was part of Modi’s interactions with heads of state and government attending the G20 Summit that gets underway in New Delhi on Saturday. Bangladesh is among nine guest countries invited to the G20 process this year under the Indian presidency.
The meeting between Modi and Hasina at the Indian leader’s official residence lasted almost an hour and discussions focused on a range of regional issues, including the maintenance of stability in South Asia, and ways to bolster cooperation in areas such as security, trade and energy, people familiar with the matter said.
The two sides signed three memorandums of understanding (MoUs) for strengthening bilateral cooperation, including one on cooperation in digital payment mechanisms between the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Bangladesh Bank.
Another MoU covered cooperation between the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council , while the third was on renewal of a bilateral cultural exchange programme for 2023-25.
During a media briefing after the meeting, Bangladesh foreign minister AK Abdul Momen said both sides had similar views on maintaining regional stability. “Regional peace and stability is important for both countries and for South Asia, and India is on same page with us,” he said, speaking in Bengali.
“Look back at the experiences from 2001 to 2006, when Bangladesh was known as a country of terrorism and jihadis and bad policies, and there were synchronised bomb blasts in 63 out of 64 districts. A grenade attack injured a foreign envoy and there was a grenade attack on a rally by Sheikh Hasina,” Momen said. “We don’t want to return to those days, we want progress towards a developed Bangladesh.”
The people cited above said the Bangladeshi side had also given an assurance that the country’s relations with China were mainly focused on economic issues, whereas cooperation with the Indian side was of a more strategic nature.
A readout from the external affairs ministry said Modi and Hasina discussed political and security cooperation, border management, trade and connectivity, water resources, power and energy, development cooperation, and people-to-people ties. They also discussed developments in the region and cooperation at multilateral forums.
The leaders welcomed the operationalisation of an agreement on the use of the Chattogram and Mongla ports in Bangladesh for shipping goods to India’s northeastern states, commissioning of the India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline, and operationalisation of settlement of bilateral trade in Indian rupees.
Modi and Hasina looked forward to the beginning of negotiations on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) covering trade in goods and services and promotion of investments.
The two leaders looked forward to the joint inauguration of three development projects – the Agartala-Akhaura and Khulna-Mongla rail links and the second unit of the Maitri Power Plant.
Modi expressed appreciation for the burden shouldered by Bangladesh in hosting more than a million people displaced from Myanmar’s Rakhine state and conveyed India’s positive approach to support solutions towards their safe and sustainable repatriation.
The Indian premier also held a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth of Mauritius, another of the guest countries in the G20 format. The leaders reviewed bilateral cooperation and noted the rapid pace of bilateral exchanges in the past year, with more than 30 delegation visits and signing of 23 agreements.
Modi is expected to hold bilateral meetings with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Saturday, and with the leaders of France, Canada, Türkiye, the UAE, South Korea, the European Union, Brazil, Nigeria and Comoros on Sunday.
