Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Indian Premier Narendra Modi are set to hold a virtual meeting in December, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen confirmed it today.
“It will be a virtual meeting … but, if the pandemic situation improves, it (the meeting) could be in person (in December),” Momen told reporters at his office here this afternoon.
Without detailing about the meeting, the foreign minister indicated that there might be signing of bilateral agreements between the two neighbouring countries after the talks of the two premiers in December.“It looks better if the deals are signed in their (Hasina and Modi) presence,” he said.
Momen and his Indian counterpart Dr. S. Jaishankar are scheduled to lead the 6th Bangladesh-India Joint Consultative Commission (JCC) meeting to be held in a virtual platform tomorrow afternoon.
“India is our neighbor and our best friend. We have many things to discuss,” Momen said, adding that no instrument would be signed tomorrow.
The foreign minister said a wide range of issues including water sharing, trade, line of credit, border killing, air bubble and pandemic are expected to be discussed tomorrow.
He said that Dhaka would urge New Delhi to fix a new date of holding the stalled Joint River Commission (JRC) meeting between Bangladesh and India to discuss water sharing of 7-8 transboundary rivers.
“We need to hold the JRC meeting … as it was not arranged in the last 10 years,” Momen said.
The last JRC meeting was held in New Delhi in 2010. But, during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India last year, both the countries agreed to instruct the JRC technical committee to exchange updated data and information as well as prepare a draft framework to this end.❐
