One of the key components towards ensuring that Bangladesh remains on the path towards sustainable development is by ensuring that it maintains fruitful relationships with nations across the world -- a matter on which we have editorialized before, given the increasingly globalized nature of the world today.
It is encouraging to see that this opinion is shared by the current government, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina emphasizing the importance of regional development at a meeting with Indian High Commissioner Vikram Kumar Doraiswami, stating that Bangladesh’s policy is simple: “Friendship to all, malice to none.”
The friendship between India and Bangladesh stretches back to our nation’s very inception, with India having played an instrumental role in our struggle for freedom and, almost 50 years later, we find ourselves once again working together to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, one of the most challenging crises the world has faced, and one which necessitates the need for all nations to cooperate and collaborate moving forward.
There is already an ongoing process for India to deliver 30 million vaccines to Bangladesh, but what was more encouraging was the Indian high commissioner highlighting the various ways in which Indo-Bangladesh relations could become stronger in the future, such as through further investment in our nation’s food and agriculture sectors, and supporting Bangladesh’s candidature for the Southeast Asia Regional Office of the World Health Organization.
Such agreements provide avenues for Bangladesh to propel its economy and its people to newer heights and are clear examples of how maintaining relationships with our neighbours, as the current government has strived to do since it came into power, acts as a catalyst for our nation’s developmental journey moving forward.
