India-Bangladesh Energised Partnership

Rarely before have India and Bangladesh found themselves so robust ly positioned, as now, to tango towards the most defining partnership taking shape in the South Asian region.

- Nivedita Mukherjee

A series of high-level exchange of visits including S Jaishankar’s first visit to Bangladesh as External Affairs Minister in August 2019, meetings of Prime Minister NarendraModi and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at various multilateral fora, convergence of opinion, thoughts and ideas on regional and global issues against the backdrop of a landslide victory of the two leaders in their respective national elections, are creating a transformative moment in the IndiaBangladesh relations, based on “sabkasaath, sabkavikas, sabkavishwas”.

The seven pacts and three projects signed and finalised during the recent visit of the Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina – as a build-up to an increasingly multifaceted cooperation in the recent few years – has the diplomatic machinery in the two countries firing on all cylinders as India and Bangladesh expand their partnership to high technology, digital communications, atomic energy and space to water treatment plants and clinics. The two nations are creating milestones in trade, points out Prabir De, Professor, Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), a leading Indian think-tank. “For the first time, Bangladesh’s exports to India crossed US$ 1 billion mark in 2018-19, a record 52 percent jump, compared to 2017-18. Bilateral trade between India and Bangladesh has grown steadily over the last decade catapulting Bangladesh to India’s biggest trade partner in South Asia. Our bilateral trade is $5 bn but the potential is $ 40 bn,” says Prabir De.