EAM Jaishankar, Bangladesh FM Momen hold 7th Joint Consultative Commission meeting

External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar on Sunday met his Bangladeshi counterpart Dr AK Abdul Momen for the 7th India-Bangladesh Joint Consultative Commission meeting. During the meeting, management of border security, connectivity projects, cyber security and other issues were discussed.

During the meeting, EAM Jaishankar said, "Today, Bangladesh is our largest development and trade partner in the region. We jointly overcame the pandemic in terms of vaccine, and medicine supply. We now look forward to working with Bangladesh to take our ties to new domains including artificial intelligence, cyber security, start-ups, fintech and up-gradation of the railway system."

The External Affairs Minister also expressed India's support and solidarity over the unprecedented floods that created havoc in Northern Bangladesh. "We also had (floods) in North East. We are now sharing flood management data for an extended period," he said, adding that India would be happy to support with any relief measures.

'India most important and closest neighbour of Bangladesh': Momen

Calling India the most important neighbour, Momen said, "I'm proud to say that because of the initiatives Prime Minister Narendra Modi and our PM Sheikh Hasina have taken, we have achieved peace in the region which is helping us in a lot of development."

"Bangladesh-India relation is known to be a role model for bilateral and regional cooperation and based on mutual trust and respect," the Bangladeshi Foreign Minister said adding that both the countries can share flood management and forecast data to be prepared for harsh weather.

This is the first physical Joint Consultative Commission (JCC) meeting since the COVID-19 pandemic, while the last edition was virtually held in 2020. The JCC reviewed the bilateral relations, including cooperation in wake of the pandemic, border management and security, trade and investment, connectivity, water resources, energy, development partnership and regional and multilateral issues.