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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Saturday embark on a historic visit to Bangladesh. Both sides have ratified the long-pending land boundary agreement that is expected to take bilateral ties to new heights.
Modi will be in Bangladesh till Sunday. He will be accompanied by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
“This is truly going to be a historic visit. Ratification of the land boundary agreement is not an ordinary achievement,” Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said here on Friday.
The agreement, which seeks to settle a 41-year border issue with Bangladesh, will help check trafficking of people and drugs.
The agreement will be signed by Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina.
Jaishankar said the agreement would also dissolve the 161 enclaves held by both countries. “The agreement will help in the management of the border. We expect more trust and confidence,” he added.
On the second day of his visit, Modi will meet leaders of political parties, including former Bangladeshi prime minister and leader of the Bangladesh National Party Khaleda Zia.
He stated India had been discussing improving access to the Bangladeshi market. Dhaka has complained of tariff and non-tariff barriers in accessing the Indian market.
“Connectivity itself is a barrier. There are issues with paperwork on the border. These are being dealt with. We have reached a motorways agreement as part of the sub-regional BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal) grouping, which will allow for movement of vehicles from one country to the other,” he said, adding smaller shipping lines would be created.
India is looking to set up a Special Economic Zone in Bangladesh to attract Indian investment. India is also planning to grant equal national treatment to Bangladeshi exports.
If Bangladesh allowed free movement of Indian goods, it would earn atleast $1 billion as transit fee, helping to reduce the trade imbalance between the two countries, the Confederation of Indian Industry has said.
India is running 15 projects in Bangladesh, of which seven have been completed and eight are under implementation. These are mostly in the railways sector. Modi could announce more projects in railways, power, roads, ports and education.
India is planning to substantially increase power supply from the 500 Mw it dispatches to its neighbour. India will also soon begin diesel supplies to Bangladesh.
It is also expected that Bangladeshi TV programmes might be shown in India soon.
