Hours before his arrival at Dhaka for the historic visit Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an editorial in a leading Bangladesh English daily (The Daily Star), underlined the importance of ties with the eastern neighbour for a stronger and stable South Asia. In an op-ed titled ‘Imagining a different South Asia with Bangabandhu’, Modi assured that India will remain Bangladesh’s partner for the ‘golden future‘.
“India will remain Bangladesh’s partner as we jointly march towards the golden future for which Bangabandhu, and millions of patriotic Bangladeshis, and indeed thousands of Indians, gave their all,” the PM said.
Modi is on a two-day visit to Bangladesh as a part of the golden jubilee celebrations of the independence of that country. Emphasising on India’s neighbourhood first policy, the PM said that in a spirit of good neighbourliness, India and Bangladesh have resolved complex issues amicably.
“Our land and maritime boundaries stand settled. We have substantial cooperation covering almost all aspects of human endeavour. Our trade has reached historic levels, aiding economic activities in each other’s countries. Our people-to-people exchanges remain robust as ever,” he added.
Modi hoped for a future, where the youth of the two countries could be joining their energies to create wealth, innovation and drive. He said that the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Father of Bangladesh, ‘deprived the region of the destiny that could and should have been ours to share’.
“We could have built a closely integrated economic region, with deeply interlinked value-chains spanning food processing to light industry, electronics and technology products to advanced materials. We could have created inter-governmental structures to maximise the economic, scientific and strategic benefits of a community of hundreds of millions of people,” he said.
