Apart from water sharing, trade, and connectivity, mutual cooperation to absorb the shock of the Ukraine war will be highlighted at the seventh meeting of the Indo-Bangladesh Joint Consultative Commission (JCC), which will be held in New Delhi on Sunday.
Dr S Jaishankar, external affairs minister of India and Dr AK Abdul Momen, foreign minister of Bangladesh will co-chair the meeting.
Both countries will also discuss possible areas of cooperation to absorb the shock of the Ukraine war on the economies, officials of the foreign ministry said.
Both the foreign ministers will have a meeting on the sidelines of the JCC. Their last meeting was held in the last week of May on the sidelines of an international conclave in Guwahati where they discussed sourcing of energy at cheaper prices, sources said.
Bangladesh will also press for holding the meeting of the Joint River Commission (JRC) to resolve the pending water sharing issues, especially of the Teesta.
“We will raise the water sharing issue of Teesta and other joint rivers. It is very frustrating for us that the deal on sharing water of the Teesta River could not be signed despite the nods from top leaderships of both countries but it is a matter of shame for them as they could not deliver the deal” Foreign Minister Dr Momen said.
The minister, along with the Bangladesh delegation, arrived Delhi on Saturday afternoon.
The minister mentioned that the JCC was deferred from May 29 to June 19 with the hope that the JRC could be held in meantime.
But that did not happen, the foreign minister repented.
According to the foreign ministry officials, the JCC will review the entire gamut of bilateral relations, including cooperation in the wake of Covid-19, border management and security, trade and investment, connectivity, energy, water resources, development partnership and regional & multilateral issues.
This will be the first physical JCC meeting since the onset of Covid-19 pandemic, with the previous edition held virtually in 2020.
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