India-Bangladesh Strategic Partnership

In News –External Affairs Minister made a strong outreach to Bangladesh  on his bilateral visit.

• The visits have been timed with celebrations to mark 50 years of the 1971 liberation war that led to the birth of Bangladesh.

Key Points

• Both the countries are working so hard to expand relationships in all dimensions, ranging from security, trade, transport and connectivity, culture, people-to-people ties, energy, joint development of shared resources and defence.
• They acknowledged the collaborative initiative of the two countries in implementing the vaccination programme against the ongoing pandemic.
  •  Bangladesh has purchased the Covid vaccine from Serum Institute of India, and the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is implementing the nationwide vaccination programme, free of cost, very efficiently and effectively.”

• Indian and Bangladeshi foreign ministers discussed Japan as a third country for partnership on connectivity in the region.
  • Japan has been involved in a number of connectivity projects in India’s northeast.
  • Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA) stands at over Rs 1600 cr in India’s northeast with projects, many of them connectivity in seven states of the region. The projects include Guwahati sewerage projects, Sikkim major district roads projects.

• Both sides reviewed the entire gamut of security and border-related cooperation and agreed to work closely to fulfil the shared vision of the leadership of the two countries.
  • The significance of our ties with Bangladesh lies in its centrality for our ‘Neighbourhood First’ and its growing relevance for our ‘Act East’ Policy.

India-Bangladesh Relations

• India was one of the first countries to recognize Bangladesh and establish diplomatic relations immediately after its independence in December 1971.
• Both these nations are members of SAARC, BIMSTEC, Indian Ocean Coastal Regional Cooperation Association, and Commonwealth.

• Economic and Commercial:  Bangladesh is India’s biggest trade partner in South Asia. Bilateral trade between India and Bangladesh has grown steadily over the last decade.
  • India’s exports to Bangladesh in FY 2018-19 stood at US$ 9.21 bn and imports from Bangladesh during the same period were US$1.04 bn.
  • Cooperation in the power sector has become one of the hallmarks of India -Bangladesh relations. Bangladesh is currently importing 1160 MW of power from India.
  • Bangladesh is the biggest development partner of India. India has extended 3 Lines of Credits (LOC) to Bangladesh in the last 8 years amounting to US$ 8 billion for development of infrastructure in various sectors including roads,railways, shipping and ports.

• Capacity Building and Human Resource Development:  Human resource development is a key component of India’s development cooperation efforts in Bangladesh through its several ongoing training programs and Scholarships.
  •  The Government of India has been training 1800 Bangladesh Civil Service officials from 2019 at National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG),Mussoorie
  • The Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre (IGCC) in Dhaka plays an important role in celebration of common cultural links between the two countries.
  • Its training programs including Yoga, Kathak, Manipuri dance, Hindi language, Hindustani classical music and the cultural programs of renowned artists of India and Bangladesh contribute in promotion of people to people contacts.

• Defense Cooperation: High level exchanges at the level of services chief of Indian Navy, Bangladesh Navy and Indian Air Force, conduct of second annual defense dialogue and inaugural tri-services staff talks, service specific talks of Navy and Air Force and the DG level talks between the Coast Guards have contributed to significant improvement in bilateral defense cooperation.
  • In the training domain both the countries have continued and enhanced mutual engagements.
  • Various Joint exercises of Army (Exercise Sampriti) and Navy (Exercise Milan) take place between the two countries.

• Connectivity: Both the governments are undertaking various measures to restore the pre1965 rail links and other connectivity links that existed between India and Bangladesh.
  • To enhance people to people contacts, it has been decided to increase the frequency of two passenger trains, i.e., Maitree Express and Bandhan Express from 4 days a week to 5 days a week and from one day a week to two days a week respectively.
  • Both the governments decided to commence Dhaka-Siliguri-Gangtok-Dhaka and DhakaSiliguri-Darjeeling-Dhaka bus service to enhance people to people contacts between both the countries and the trail run of Dhaka-Siliguri-Gangtok-Dhaka was also held in December 2019.
  • Both countries jointly inaugurated the newly restored railway link between Haldibari (India) and Chilahati (Bangladesh).
  • the Government of India has also been providing grant assistance to Bangladesh for various infrastructure projects including construction of Akhaura-Agartala rail link, dredging of inland waterways in Bangladesh and construction of India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline

Source :IE