Hasina, Modi hold talks discusses bilateral issues in London

FT ONLINE

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday held a bilateral meeting with her Indian coumterpart Narendra Modi in London and discussed matters of bilateral interests.

After a year, both the premiers met on the sidelines of 25th Commonwealth heads of government meeting in London.

After the meeting, Indian premier Modi twitted, “Held wide-ranging talks with PM Sheikh Hasina on ways to further cement India-Bangladesh relations.”

Indian foreign affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar twitted that a fruitful meeting was held between the two top leaders of two neighbouring countries.

“Neighbourhood first! Connecting with a neighbour and a close friend, PM Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina had a productive exchange of views on various issues of bilateral interest on the sidelines of the CHOGM.”

Sheikh Hasina and Narendra Modi were attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, kicked off with the theme ‘towards a common future’.

After the meeting, Bangladesh foreign affairs secretary Shahidul Haque told reporters that various issues were discussed during the meeting of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

“On the sidelines of the CHOGM, the two premiers held the meeting at Lancaster House in London on Thursday afternoon and discussed issues related to bilateral interests,” Haque said.

PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim was present at the briefing.

Replying to a question of journalists that whether Rohingya and Teesta issues came up for discussion, the foreign secretary said all the issues were discussed at the meeting.

The Bangladesh and Indian prime ministers also discussed the issue of Commonwealth.

While talking about the the Rohingya issue, Haque said India has changed its position on this issue, which is "much closer to us". "India is helping for rehabilitation of the Rohingyas," he said.

The foreign secretary said the issue of inauguration of "Bangladesh House" at Biswa Bharati University in Indian state of West Bengal in the presence of the two premiers came up for discussion.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam, PM's Principal Secretary Md Nojibur Rahman, and Principal Coordinator on the SDG Affairs Md Abul Kalam Azad were present at the meeting.

Meeting sources say that both the premiers discussed on various issues, including the structural development and other regional issues.

Soon after Hasina’s assumption in office for the consecutive second time through January 5, 2014 polls, Narendra Modi also came to power in that year.

Assuming the office, Modi visited Bangladesh in June in 2015 while Hasina visited India in 2017 with a hope of signing the long standing Teesta Treaty.

The Teesta deal was not inked during the visit of Hasina. But the Indian government assured that the deal would be signed during the regimes of the two neighbouring leaders.

Though the two leaders are in their last year in office, the Teesta deal is yet to be inked.

Both Hasina and Modi held one to one meeting in April last year during her four-day official visit to India and Indian premier Modi received the Bangladesh premier breaking the protocol.