India reaffirms Hasina and Modi’s virtual summit in December

Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Vikram Kumar Doraiswami has assured that the planned December virtual summit between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi is not being seen as a substitute for an in person visit by the latter.

Rather it will be a complementary summit, he said during his meeting with State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam on Wednesday.

Doraiswami reiterated India’s initiatives to conduct stage-III Covid-19 vaccine trial, assuring again that Bangladesh will get top priority for trial, distribution, delivery and partial co-production of the vaccine following the trial in India.

During the meeting, both of them agreed to hold the long-pending meeting of Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) at the ministerial level soon.

The state minister recalled the decision of the last Joint Consultative Commission (JCC) to hold the virtual summit between the two prime ministers.

He congratulated Doraiswami on assuming his assignment in Bangladesh.

The high commissioner acknowledged the willingness and efforts of the state minister to develop bilateral relations between Bangladesh and India.

Both of them appreciated the historical bond between two nationals.

Shahriar hoped that the people-to-people connectivity between the two countries would be restored to normalcy soon.

In this regard, he appreciated the Indian side for reopening 'people-people' movement and requested it to ease their visa regulations.

Doraiswami assured that the air bubble arrangement between Bangladesh and India will convene soon and other regulations will also be eased eventually.

Both sides stressed the importance of creating an easy, sustainable mechanism for bilateral people-people movement, with ease of travel and exchange of currency.

Other issues, including restoration of Chilahati-Haldibari rail link, connectivity with North-East India and Bangabandhu-Bapu Digital Museum, were also discussed during the meeting.