Wednesday 18 / December / 2024
Dhaka: As Bangladesh emerges from a period of political instability it looks to continue ongoing commercial activities and other projects with India. Bangladesh's Foreign Affairs Advisor Mohammed Touhid Hossain says that these projects will remain unaffected.
Speaking to ANI, Touhid said, "Trade has been going on. After a short gap. Immediately after the fall of the government, trade again picked up...going on."
"The projects that are ongoing and approved agreements definitely go on," he underlined.
Amid the current slowdown in trade between both nations, the first consignment of renowned 'Padma Hilsa' fish from Bangladesh arrived in West Bengal on September 27, weighing around 45-50 tonnes ahead of Durga Puja.
Further, Touhid clarified that everything will go as usual despite the fact that the process of issuance of visas has not achieved normalcy.
"About the people-to-people contact, the Indian visa offices are not opened as yet fully. It is up to them when they will do it. This is the decision of the Indian government when that happened, people have the visas to go to India. Our offices in India are issuing visas to those who are coming for Bangladesh visas. I think even though there is some pause some times, it is pick up," Touhid added.
Touhid Hossain also added that the bilateral relations between Bangladesh and India "will continue normally."
"I think we have a lot of commonalities as well as a lot of complimentary. I think the bilateral relations interest being... particular relations will continue normally and as I said, both countries recognised that they need the help of the other country," he said.
Both Bangladesh and India must have "good working relations" with each other, the country's Hossain, said, describing New Delhi as Dhaka's "largest neighbour."
Touhid said that they agreed to maintain working relations but they did not discuss the issue of Sheikh Hasina.
"I think my conversation with Jaishankar was constructive. It seems to me that both India and Bangladesh want to have good working relations with each other. And Jaishankar recognised that. I would put it very simply; we both had free and fair discussions and we both recognised that we must have good working relations with each other," the Bangladesh Foreign Affairs Adviser said late on Monday.
"The issue of Sheikh Hasina was not discussed with him," he told ANI.
India and Bangladesh share more than 4,000 km of common land borders and there are also maritime boundaries in the Bay of Bengal that the two countries share with each other.
The Foreign Affairs advisor, however, did not make any comment regarding the media reports that claimed that the US government manufactured a coup to replace Sheikh Hasina, but he said the movement was spontaneous by the younger generations.
The minority groups in Bangladesh alleged Hindus were attacked immediately after the political changes, but the interim government says those were not religious but political in nature.
"Immediately after the departure of Sheikh Hasina, there was a vacuum in administrations and there was also a problem of policing because police had been actually placed against the young generation so when Sheikh Hasina departed, police was not their own duty. At that time tensions and sentiments ran very high so some incidents were there but putting it as anti-Hindu agitation or anti-Hindu action, would be utterly wrong," Touhid said.
In response to a question whether Durga Puja will be allowed, as protests were seen against it quite recently,
Touhid said, "This is quite strange. There could be a fringe that may not like Durga Puja. Durga Puja has been performed in this country for ages and there have been no instances when Durga Puja was not held."
"Certainly, the worshippers who want to do so have the opportunity to do so. There should be no doubt about this," he strongly asserted.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned on August 5 and fled to India in a military aircraft, following mounting protests against the contentious government job quota system that had sparked widespread anti-government demonstrations.
