Hasina-Modi to hold virtual summit on Thursday

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi will hold a virtual summit on Thursday during which the two countries are expected to sign nine agreements in different fields, Foreign Minister A K Abdul Momen said on Tuesday.

The two leaders would also witness reopening of an old railway link - Chilahati-Haldibari rail route - after 55 years since it was snapped during India-Pakistan war in 1965, when Bangladesh was part of Pakistan. The rail route will re-link Cooch Behar with Bangladesh's Chilahati.

"It is likely as many as nine MoUs on different sectors will be signed during their virtual meeting…but these are yet to be finalised as they (officials) are still working on it," Momen told PTI.

Earlier, officials at the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry said the number of MoUs to be signed between the two sides could be as high as four.

Momen said Dhaka will raise all major bilateral issues including water sharing, COVID-19 cooperation, border killing, trade imbalance, connectivity, power swap and the Rohingya crisis.

Elaborating on the issues, Momen hinted that water sharing in common rivers would prominently feature during the summit. He said Dhaka would seek to bring under a single framework the issues of seven major trans-border rivers - Monu, Muhuri, Gomti, Dharla, Dudhkumar, Feni and Teesta.

He said Bangladesh side would seek to hold the ministerial level Joint River Commission meeting soon, if possible by next month, to make the framework to resolve the issues of these seven common streams.

He said the Testa agreement was finalised long ago as the "Indian side even signed on every page of the agreement".

"The final (Teesta) deal is there, it just awaits implementation,” he said, adding that New Delhi made repeated promises for its implementation in the past several years.

Momen also said that bilateral cooperation on the COVID-19 pandemic was likely to be top on agenda during the summit. "India has already promised us they will provide COVID-19 vaccine to Bangladesh first" and the talks were expected to reinforce that understanding, he said.

Bangladesh's Beximco Pharma has signed an MoU with India's Serum Institute on November 5 for priority delivery of 30 million doses of prospective COVID-19 vaccine to the country.

Momen said Bangladesh would also seek India’s enhanced engagement in resolving the Rohingya crisis at the United Nations. India would join UN Security Council next month as a non-permanent member.

India in the past has said it wanted safe, secure and sustainable Rohingya repatriation.

Momen said that Bangladesh would also convey its concern over India's Border Security Force's actions, claiming lives of its citizens along the frontier areas.

According to Momen, Prime Minister Hasina would urge New Delhi to take some effective measures to reduce the bilateral trade gap, which continued to tilt heavily in India's favour, to strengthen further trade cooperation between the two neighbours.

"We will urge India to reduce non-tariff trade barriers on Bangladeshi products to reduce the trade gap," he said.

Momen said that Dhaka would also seek "standard harmonisation" between the quality regulating or testing authorities of the two countries "so that Bangladeshi products can enter Indian market smoothly".

He said Dhaka would also urge New Delhi to withdraw an existing anti-dumping policy in importing Bangladeshi jute. He said Dhaka would demand India's preferential treatment to Bangladeshi businessmen.

Momen said Prime Minister Hasina would urge her counterpart to expedite implementation of projects under the Indian Line of Credit (LoC).

"We have already formed a committee including Bangladesh foreign secretary and Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh to monitor projects under the Indian credit line," he said.

Momen said the two leaders would jointly declare as "Shawdhinota Sark" (Independence Road) an existing two-kilometre road on zero line along Bangladesh's western frontier at Mujibnagar in Meherpur.

He said the road at the site, where the first Bangladesh government was sworn-in in 1971, would be open for people of both the countries to be cleared at immigration check posts.

Momen said the meeting was taking place coinciding with Bangladesh's 50th Victory Day and 49th anniversary of bilateral friendship. The two countries have designed a series of ceremonies to mark the occasion.

Hasina and Modi will also inaugurate the ‘Bangabandhu-Bapu Digital Museum’ to pay tributes to the founders of Bangladesh and India. Some footages of the Bangabandhu's under construction biopic being made by Indian filmmaker Shyam Benegal would be screened during the summit.

Momen said Dhaka was set to honour another large number of Indian veterans who fought for Bangladesh’s liberation in 1971.

He called the current phase of bilateral relations as "golden chapter" and "rock solid".

"Our ties with India is a blood relation...no one can deny and our victory is India’s victory...Our development is India’s development".

Hasina and Modi held last bilateral talks in New Delhi on October 5 last year while a scheduled visit of the later early this year to Dhaka to join Bangabandhu's birth centenary celebrations was cancelled due to COVID-19.

Momen said Dhaka has invited the Indian prime minister to join in person Bangladesh's 50 years of the independence celebrations on March 26, 2021.