We welcome this week’s visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Bangladesh.
It provides a chance to reboot bilateral relations by building on the recent successful progress made on implementing the long delayed Land Boundary Agreement.
The talks are expected to see new deals advanced to promote co-operation on trade protocols, coastal shipping, and connectivity.
Advancing these issues will provide a platform for Bangladesh and India to make much-needed progress on other important bilateral issues.
For Bangladesh, resolving the Teesta water-sharing issue is a high priority need. With flows from the Teesta into Bangladesh at record lows, we need a proper settlement to be implemented to ease the suffering caused to Bangladeshi farmers by the failure to properly share common river waters.
To sustainably grow business and mutual trade and investment between our two nations, more progress is needed to eliminate para-tariff barriers and to advance connectivity to allow businesses more opportunities in cross-border markets.
We hope this visit will facilitate progress on all of these issues and build the goodwill needed to bring a final end to border shootings.
Improving bilateral relations is in the common interest of not just Bangladesh and India but of all the peoples in our region.
Talks to further our mutual interest should not be seen as a zero-sum game, but as a win-win opportunity that can help advance complementary efforts being made by BIMSTEC and SAARC.