As Bangladesh heads towards celebrating 50 full years of independence, it is imperative that our relationship with one of our largest allies from the start, India, remains strong, with an aim towards creating newer avenues of mutual development.
This has been reflected in both nations and their respective representatives, echoing the sentiment to generate new areas of cooperation, with a virtual summit held earlier this year by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Indian PM Narendra Modi -- the latter being all set to visit Bangladesh in March -- further giving weight to the intent.
However, while both nations have taken great strides towards mutually beneficial policies, it is also true that there still exist pending issues which need to be resolved, which continue to act as obstacles towards fulfilling the potential of this relationship.
Examples of contentious matters which need urgent resolution include the border killings of Bangladeshis at the hands of the BSF and the controversial allocation of water resources from the Teesta river, both of which, we are pleased to see, were addressed by the PMs in the virtual summit.
It was further encouraging to see the same commitment to solving these problems during a meeting between Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen and Indian External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar in New Delhi on Thursday, with each representative expressing gratitude for the tremendous support that has been shown in these most troubling times, most notable of which is the recent handing over of vaccines.
Such mutually beneficial partnerships will remain crucial to Bangladesh as it moves forward, and will undoubtedly hasten the rate at which we approach middle-income status.
