Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud in his first bilateral visit to India reviewed the progress of the wide-raging relations and discussed areas of future engagement with his counterpart Dr S Jaishankar on Wednesday in New Delhi.
The meeting began with a warm welcome by Jaishankar who wrote in Bangla in X, formerly Twitter, to greet his counterpart in India and said the discussions would “strengthen” India-Bangladesh friendship.
After the meeting, the external affairs ministry said that the two ministers reviewed the progress in wide-ranging areas of bilateral relations, including cross-border connectivity, economic and development partnership, cooperation in defence and security, power, energy, water resources, and people-to-people exchanges.
They also discussed areas of future engagement in line with the national development goals of the two countries, including the visions of "Viksit Bharat 2047" and "Smart Bangladesh 2041".
The two leaders also exchanged views on regional and multilateral issues of common interest.
They expressed commitment to further enhance their collaboration to promote sub-regional cooperation within the framework of Bimstec, IORA, and BBIN.
This is Foreign Minister Mahmud's first official visit to India, and his first bilateral visit to any country, after assuming office as the new foreign minister of Bangladesh on January 11.
But it comes amid a volatile situation in Myanmar which shares borders with both Bangladesh and India.
Hasan Mahmud also held a meeting with the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval where they discussed security issues including the Rohingya crisis.
Earlier, he visited Rajghat to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi.
He will call on the president of India and hold a meeting with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.
The FM will travel to Kolkata on February 9 before concluding his visit.
