New Delhi:
With Bangladesh as the central pillar of India’s Neighborhood First policy, Dhaka is New Delhi’s largest trading partner in South Asia and bilateral trade between the two countries grew at an unprecedented rate of 14 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic, it said Foreign Minister Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Tuesday.
Speaking at a special foreign ministry briefing, the foreign minister also said India is Bangladesh’s main economic partner.
“Bangladesh is a central pillar of our Neighborhood First policy. It is also the relationship where this policy intersects with the element of our Act East policy. India is today Bangladesh’s main economic partner and Bangladesh is India’s largest trading partner in South Asia. India is Bangladesh’s second largest trading partner,” he added.
Recalling Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Bangladesh earlier this year, the Foreign Minister said: “It is the only country visited by Prime Minister Modi, President Ram Nath Kovind and Foreign Minister S Jaishankar.
“In March, our Prime Minister paid a state visit to Bangladesh to participate in the celebration of Triveni. It is of great importance that we attach great importance to our relations with Bangladesh as the destination of the first post-pandemic visits by both President and Prime Minister. It is also the only country to have been visited by the Prime Minister, the President and the Foreign Minister in the recent past,” he said.
The foreign minister said: “India and Bangladesh jointly commemorated Maitree Diwas on December 6. It is celebrated jointly with New Delhi and Dhaka and also in capital cities around the world. Both Prime Ministers have distributed special messages on this occasion.”
“Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, bilateral trade was at an unprecedented rate of 14 percent, from $9.46 billion in 2019 to $10.78 billion in 2021,” he said.
Mr Shringla also said that Bangladesh is also one of our key development partners, both in terms of value and cooperation. “We provide a third of our total global development assistance to Bangladesh through credit lines.”
“In addition, we have expanded several projects to bring direct benefits to the local community. India Bangladesh is more connected than ever before. Road, rail, air, river and coastal connectivity is increasing. Multi-model transport involving more than one of these channels is quite possible today.”
“Community energy space is steadily emerging, our electricity grids are interconnected from east and west with more than 1160 megawatts of energy far from India and Bangladesh,” he added.
President Kovind begins a three-day state visit to Bangladesh from tomorrow. The visit is part of the celebration of the 50th Victory Day in Dhaka, for which the President of Bangladesh, Abdul Hamid, has invited President Kovind to represent India as guest of honour.
President Kovind will leave for Delhi on December 17.