Dr. S Jaishankar, Union Minister of External Affairs.
Credit: Reuters Photo
London: India-Bangladesh ties stand out as a 'model relationship' in the Indian subcontinent in terms of benefits of regional cooperation, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said, highlighting the progress in bilateral relations in the last 10 years.
His remarks came in response to a question by Bangladesh High Commissioner in the UK, Saida Muna Tasneem, during an interaction entitled ‘How a Billion People See the World’ at the Royal Over-Seas League here on Wednesday evening.
Tasneem asked Jaishankar about the priority of Dhaka in India's foreign policy when it comes to security, regional connectivity, shared prosperity and the Indo-Pacific.
"Today our relationship stands out in the Indian subcontinent as a model relationship in terms of benefits of regional cooperation," he said.
Jaishankar said they had tried to restructure the neighbourhood. "Obviously it's not something unilateral by us."
One of the big changes in that, he said: "For example, with Bangladesh, we have settled our land boundary which is really a big deal."
"We had differences on our maritime boundary, and we went for arbitration. We agreed that whatever the arbitral award would be, we would both follow. We did when the arbitral award came. A lot of it was not in our favour," he said, adding: "It's a good example for the region and countries."
In the last 10 years, he said there had been rail links between the countries and a power plant, and now India is using Bangladesh's ports for the northeast, and they are benefiting from more traffic coming through the port.
The discussion covered a wide range of topics, including India-China relations, the ongoing diplomatic row with Canada and the socio-political scenario in the country.