NEW DELHI, June 14: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is likely to pay a two-day visit to India next week with an aim to further bolster the already close strategic ties between the two sides.
Hasina is scheduled to begin her visit on June 21 and is set to hold wide-ranging talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi the next day, authoritative sources said on Friday.
Several agreements covering various key areas are expected to be firmed up during the talks, they said.
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The Bangladeshi prime minister was among seven top leaders from India’s neighbourhood and the Indian Ocean region who attended the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Modi and the Union council of ministers at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on June 9.
The talks between the two leaders are expected to focus on taking the bilateral ties to new height, said a source.
The overall strategic ties between India and Bangladesh have been on an upswing in the last few years.
Bangladesh is an important partner for India under its “Neighbourhood First” policy and the cooperation extends to areas of security, trade, commerce, energy, connectivity, science and technology, defence and maritime affairs among others.
The achievements in the connectivity sector included the inauguration of the Maitri Setu bridge over river Feni in Tripura and the rollout of the Chilahati-Haldibari rail link.
Bangladesh is India’s largest development partner with nearly one-fourth of New Delhi’s commitment under the Line of Credit has been made to that country.
Bangladesh is India’s biggest trading partner in South Asia and India is the second biggest trading partner of Bangladesh in Asia.
India is Bangladesh’s largest export destination in Asia, with approximate USD 2 billion of Bangladeshi exports to India in 2022-23.
In 2022-23, the total bilateral trade has been reported as USD 15.9 billion. (PTI)
