Bangladesh's premier arrives in India on 4-day visit

By Ahmad Adil

NEW DELHI (AA) - Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday arrived in India on a four-day state visit, officials said.

Hasina arrived in the capital New Delhi on Monday afternoon, according to India's Ministry of External Affairs.

As she began her official visit, she held a meeting with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Monday evening.

Jaishankar said he was "delighted" to meet with Hasina.

"The warmth and frequency of our leadership level contacts is a testimony to our close neighborly partnership," he said on Twitter.

Earlier in the day, India's Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Arindam Bagchi said the premier on her arrival in New Delhi was "warmly welcomed" by Indian Minister of State for Railways and Textiles Darshana Vikram Jardosh.

"The visit will further strengthen the multifaceted relationship between the two countries," he said.

According to India's Ministry of External Affairs, during the visit from Sept. 5-8, Bangladesh's prime minister is also set to meet with Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, as well as with India's president and vice president.

On Sunday, Bangladesh Foreign Minister A K Abdul Momen at a news conference in the capital Dhaka said that during Hasina’s four-day India tour, the countries will sign seven memoranda of understanding (MOUs) on mutual interest.

“It is almost final that we are going to sign MOUs on seven issues including water management (on common rivers), science and technology, railway, information technology, border security, trans-border crimes (human trafficking and smuggling) and other mutual interests,” Momen said.

During her visit, Hasina will also award Mujib Scholarships, an initiative of Bangladesh, to the descendants of 200 Indian armed forces personnel, who were "martyred" or injured during the Liberation War of 1971 between Bangladesh and Pakistan.

In 1971, Bangladesh got independence after a nine-month-long war against united Pakistan when Bangladesh was East Pakistan.

The two Asian neighbors share as many as 54 transboundary rivers, and the monopoly over the waters of those rivers by upstream India is one of the most critical issues between the two neighbors.

Momen said the trade deficit between the two states will also be discussed so that it could be brought down to a satisfactory level.

In 2021, India exported goods worth $14 billion to Bangladesh, while only $2 billion worth of products were imported, according to official sources.

* Md. Kamruzzaman in Bangladesh contributed to this report.