Welcome Remarks by Director VIF

20 Jan 2021

Friends,

It is with great pleasure I welcome His Excellency Shariar Alam, State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh toVivekananda International Foundation for a Vimarsh talk on “India Bangladesh Relations: Opportunities and Prospects”.

I want to thank the honourable Minister for having accepted our invitation and finding time to time to interact with us.

Mr. Md. Shahriar Alam, has thrice been elected as a member of the National Parliament, consecutively in 2008, 2014 and 2018 from the Rajshahi-6 constituency with the highest victory margins. He was first sworn in as the State Minister for Foreign Affairs on 12 January 2014; and again reappointed on 7 January in 2019 for his continued success at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

As the State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Alam has been actively representing the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in various international forums including International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), meetings of the UN Human Rights Commission, Convention Against Torture (CAT) and the 3rd Universal Periodic Review (UPR).

Besides pursuing a political career, Mr. Alam has also achieved enviable fame as a prominent entrepreneur. His companies have now been exporting textile products worldwide. His outstanding entrepreneurial success was awarded with the National Export Trophy in Knitwear Category in 2007-08.

To fulfil his corporate social responsibility, Mr. Alam trains differently-abled people with the assistance from Center for Rehabilitation of the Paralyzed (CRP) and employs the highest number of physically challenged individuals. This led to the conferment of CSR Award from Global buyers on him.

In pursuit of a poverty-free Bangladesh, he established the North Bengal Development Forum to adopt different development agenda of the region and has undertaken many such pro-people initiatives.

Friends,

It will not be an exaggeration to say that India Bangladesh relations are passing through their golden phase. In the last decade or so, our relationship has diversified and become strategic. Many outstanding issues have been resolved. Both countries have settled their land borders and fixed their maritime boundaries.

Connectivity is at the heart of India’s neighbourhood first policy. Efforts are being made to restore connectivity between India and Bangladesh to pre-partition levels.

To give you a recent example, the first trial container ship started from Kolkata on 16 July 2020, reached Chittagong Port (Bangladesh) and travelled via road on Bangladeshi trucks to Agartala.

The first cross-border train carrying 50 containers with consumer goods and fabrics was launched recently. Bangladesh also received ten railway broad gauge diesel locomotives from India in this period.

This would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

Trade and economic relations are growing. Bangladesh is India’s biggest trade partner in South Asia. Bilateral trade between India and Bangladesh has grown steadily over the last decade.

There is health cooperation on the management of borders. People to people contacts are strong.

Last year India and Bangladesh held joint naval exercises in the Bay of Bengal. This is a welcome sign of growing defence cooperation between the two countries. We are delighted that a contingent of troops from Bangladesh will be participating on the republic day parade this year.

Bangladesh has made tremendous socio-economic progress in the last few decades. The improvement in social indicators registered in Bangladesh is the envy of the developing world.

India is now the fifth largest economy in the world. The Prime Minister has set a target of dollar 5 trillion economy by 2025. It has made significant progress in digitalisation. India will be a 1 trillion digital economy in the next few years.

India is emerging as the pharmacy of the world. A few days ago it has launched the world’s largest covid vaccination program ever. India has announced sharing of India made vaccines with the neighbours including Bangladesh. Sharing and caring among neighbours at the time of need is very much the ethos of the two countries and people.

India’s rise as responsible, non-expansionist, non-aggressive and benign power is appreciated and has had an impact on global and regional situation.

Nevertheless, despite these positive trends, there is further scope for deepening our relationship to mutual benefit.

The geopolitical global landscape is changing rapidly. The rise of China, its assertiveness and the ‘wolf warrior diplomacy’ has caused widespread misgivings. The concept of Indo Pacific has assumed great salience.

India has been wary of Chinese programmes like the Belt and Road Initiative which hides geopolitical ambitions and debt traps.

Unfortunately SAARC has made little progress. PM Modi tried to revive SAARC during the Covid times. Both countries are working together in BIMSTEC and BBIN formats. India and Bangladesh are a positive force for regional integration.

India and Bangladesh must have regular strategic dialogue at official and non-official levels covering global and regional developments.

It will be our privilege to listen to our honoured guest on how we see is India Bangladesh relations and their future prospects.

I now request HE Mohammad Shariar Alam to kindly make his remarks.