Bangladesh and India agreed to renew the bilateral air bubble arrangement and to expedite implementation of the line of credit (LoC) projects.
During the Foreign Office Consultation (FOC) meeting, held in Delhi on Friday, both sides also agreed to maintain the steady momentum of bilateral cooperation and people-to-people ties, said officials concerned.
The meet also decided to hold secretary-level talks of the Joint River Commission (JRC) before March.
Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen and his Indian counterpart Harsh Vardhan Shringla co-chaired the meeting.
It stressed the need for ‘renewal of the air travel bubble arrangement that will facilitate essential travel between the two sides’.
“Both sides focused on swift implementation of the projects under the Indian LoC in the bilateral development partnership,” said a spokesperson.
The meeting noted that the high-level development partnership monitoring mechanism for the LoC projects was operationalised with its first meeting held on January 03, 2021.
Both sides emphasised the need for increasing utilisation of funds as well as streamlining and expediting approval processes.
The Bangladesh foreign secretary was accompanied by High Commissioner to India Mohammad Imran, Secretary (East) Mashfee Shams, and representatives from the ministries of foreign affairs, commerce and water resources.
The Indian delegation consisted of representatives from the ministries of external affairs, home affairs, commerce and industry, water resources and finance.
The FOC meeting made a comprehensive review of the progress achieved in the bilateral relationship, including in the areas of Covid-19 cooperation, trade, connectivity, development partnership, power, energy and water resources, regional and multilateral cooperation as well as border management and security and defence cooperation.
The discussion also focused on preparations for the forthcoming Dhaka visit of Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi in March 2021.
Besides, events relating to commemoration of the 50th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties were also discussed, a spokesperson said.
“Both sides noted with appreciation the close cooperation on Covid-related issues, including India’s gift of 2.0 million doses of Covishield vaccine to Bangladesh in line with its Neighbourhood First Policy.”
“Underscoring the importance of the year 2021 in the context of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Bangladesh, the 50th year of bilateral diplomatic ties as well as the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, both sides decided to further strengthen the ongoing coordination to jointly commemorate these anniversaries.”
The FOC expressed satisfaction at the intensity of bilateral exchanges, continuing steadily despite the Covid-19 outbreak.
The delegations took note of the recent meetings that both the sides had after the PM-level virtual summit in December 17, 2020. The meetings include the 51st BSF-BGB director general-level talks in Guwahati on December 22-26, 2020, the JRC technical-level meeting on January 06, 2021, the first police chiefs’ dialogue on January 12, 2021 as well as the 19th secretary-level joint steering committee meeting on power sector cooperation on January 23, 2021.
Meanwhile, the 2nd India-Bangladesh consular dialogue was held in New Delhi on Thursday.
Both sides also agreed to hold the next home secretary-level talks, the commerce secretary-level talks and the JRC secretary-level meeting before March 2021.
The Bangladesh foreign secretary during his stay in New Delhi will visit the Bangabandhu-Bapu Digital Exhibition at Vigyan Bhawan, and will also interact with Indian foreign service officer trainees at Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service.