Finance
External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar met with Bangladesh’s High Commissioner to India, Riaz Hamidullah, in New Delhi on Friday to discuss improving bilateral ties.
In a post on X, EAM Jaishankar stated, “Met with High Commissioner Riaz Hamidullah of Bangladesh. Our conversation was focused on advancing our bilateral ties.”
India said on Thursday that it will continue to assist Bangladesh and other neighboring nations with energy supply requirements while balancing domestic needs, refining capacity, and fuel availability.
At a weekly media briefing on Thursday, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal repeated that India has received energy requests from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and other neighbouring nations.
He stated that India has been delivering fuel to Bangladesh via various modes of transportation since 2007 and will continue to support the South Asian nation, as well as other bordering countries.
“About energy, we have received requests from several of our neighbouring countries, and I had spoken about this earlier as well. We have received requests from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, and some other neighbouring countries. As I had indicated earlier, India has been supplying diesel to Bangladesh since 2007 through various modes of transportation. We are continuing to assist Bangladesh and our other neighbours even currently. This is being done while factoring in our own requirements, refining capacity, and diesel availability,” said Jaiswal.
With the energy shipping routes having been impacted due to the ongoing West Asia conflict, he mentioned that the supply of LPG remains a matter of concern.
“Therefore, we are prioritising domestic consumption and domestic consumers first. Their needs will be taken care of, and then we will decide how to manage LPG supply to commercial establishments. However, this remains a matter of concern due to the shortage of supply.”
Earlier this month, Pranay Verma, India’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh, met with ministers from the newly established Tarique Rahman-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) administration to examine ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation between the countries.
According to the Indian High Commission in Dhaka, Verma met with Bangladesh’s Minister of Local Government, Rural Development, and Cooperatives, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, to discuss various areas of mutual interest, including strengthening cooperation in local governance structures and rural development.
Both parties agreed to increase bilateral cooperation in sectors such as rural economy, agricultural cooperatives, grassroots financial empowerment, and so on.
“High Commissioner underlined that India-Bangladesh relations are founded on people-to-people ties and that India remains ready to engage with Bangladesh in a positive, constructive, and forward-looking manner to promote people-centric cooperation in all domains based on mutual interest and mutual benefit,” the Indian High Commission posted on X.
Verma also met Hafiz Uddin Ahmad, Bangladesh’s Minister of Liberation War Affairs, reaffirming the strong historical bonds between the two countries rooted in the shared sacrifices during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.
“They underlined the importance of working together on the basis of mutual respect and mutual trust to further strengthen people-to-people ties between the two countries,” said the Indian High Commission.
Source: IANS
