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SAARC Diary: India – Bangladesh Bilateral Ties to be Strengthened

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NEW DELHI, Jan 30: India and Bangladesh conducted foreign office consultations (FOC) in New Delhi on Friday. Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla from the Indian side and Masud Bin Momen Foreign Secretary from Bangladesh co-chaired the conference.

Momen was accompanied by Mohammad Imran, Bangladesh High Commissioner to India, Ambassador Mashfee Shams Secretary (East) Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), officials from MOFA and delegates of the Commerce, and Water Resources department. The Indian delegation comprised delegates from the MOFA, Home Affairs, Trade and Industry, Jal Shakti and Finance.

A ministry of External Affairs release said that both the sides carried out an analysis of the progress made in the bilateral relationship, particularly in the areas of Covid-19, cooperation, trade, connectivity, development partnership, power, energy & water resources, regional and multilateral cooperation, including border management and security & defence cooperation.

The conversation also centred on the arrangements for the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Dhaka in March 2021. Emphasising the significance of 2021 in the sense of the 50th anniversary of the independence of Bangladesh, the 50th year of bilateral diplomatic relations and the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the two countries agreed to further enhance the on-going cooperation to commemorate these anniversaries together.

The FOC expressed its satisfaction at the strength of bilateral exchanges, that persisted consistently amid Covid-19, and decided to hold the next home secretary-level talks, commerce secretary-level talks and the secretary-level meeting of joint rivers commission before the March 2021 Summit.

Both sides shared their gratitude for the involvement of the Bangladesh Tri-service marching contingent in the recently concluded 2021 Republic Day Parade in New Delhi and recognised the importance of reminding current generations of the struggle and sacrifice of the Indian and Bangladesh movements and peoples in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.

It was, also decided to sustain a steady momentum of bilateral relations and people-to-people relations. In this respect, it was also noted with appreciation the revival of the Air Travel Bubble arrangement that would encourage necessary travel between the two sides.

Both sides acknowledged the importance of the accelerated deployment of the credit line in bilateral development and signified optimism that a high-level development partnership, monitoring mechanism was operationalised at its first meeting on January 3, 2021.

Momen will attend the Bangabandhu – Bapu Digital Exhibition currently on view at Vigyan Bhawan during his stay in New Delhi and will be engaging with Indian Foreign Service Officer Trainees at the Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service.

 

Sri Lanka: Online Training Courses for Sri Lankan Police

Indian Technological and Economic Cooperation (e-ITEC) beginning this week is running a series of 10 online training courses for Sri Lankan Police officers. These courses will be attended by 25 nominated Sri Lankan police officers from the ranks of Police Commissioner, Chief Inspector, Inspector and Sub-Inspector and will be offered online spanning one month due to Covid-19 travel restrictions. Senior DIG Mr Priyantha Weerasooriya and Indian officers from the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), the Ministry of External Affairs and the High Commission of India, Colombo, attended the opening session.

The Indian High Commission in Colombo in a statement said BPR&D is the nodal agency for the organisation of such programmes. The course contents have been customised to suit the specifications of the Sri Lankan Police and planned in such a way that Sri Lankan police officers can have a regular interface with the Indian Police to discuss and learn from each other’s experiences.

It will strengthen the ability of the Sri Lankan Police to meet the demands of modern times. Importantly, services will include subjects, such as interrogation methods, human trafficking, financial fraud investigation, drugs and psychotropic medications, intelligence and national security seminars, cyber-crimes, de-radicalisation and counter-terrorism.

Over 200 police and legal officers were invited and trained in different subjects in India between 2018 and 2019 at various police training centres throughout India. These courses have been entirely financed by the Government of India and have been providing capacity building of the Sri Lankan police. India also profits from such contact and shared experience with the Sri Lankan police.

(Venkatesh Iyer)