India-Bangladesh ties becoming a model for South Asia: Ex ambassador

In an exclusive interview with ETV Bharat, India's former High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Ambassador Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty said, "It is certainly a very important signal for Inda's 'neighbourhood first policy' which Prime Minister Modi had articulated and Bangladesh has been chosen as the first destination."

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a two-day official visit to Bangladesh. His visit holds special significance as both the nations celebrate 50 years of diplomacy. The visit is expected to strengthen the ties between the two countries.

In an exclusive interview with ETV Bharat, India's former High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Ambassador Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty said, "it is certainly a very important signal for Inda's 'neighbourhood first policy' which Prime Minister Modi had articulated and Bangladesh has been chosen as the first destination."

Bangladesh was the country that received the first shipment of COVID vaccines manufactured in India. "Clearly, this is a huge signal that India-Bangladesh relationships have reached a stage of great maturity, confidence and trust and we can do ample things together in the future, the former diplomat said.

He said, "The year 1971 was a benchmark in South Asian and global history. We had a new country born out of Pakistan, it was again as if we were going through a partition in South Asia. It was a geopolitical event of immense dimension at the height of the cold war when some of the great powers like China, USA were opposing India and the Soviet Union was our friend. It helped us in keeping the other two powers at a distance.

"It was a huge geopolitical event and since then, Bangladesh has been one of the successful economies in Asia and hence the relationship has grown with India. Without India, Bangladesh could not have won the Liberation War," he reiterated.

Chakravarty observed that India's message to the international community is that it prefers to maintain peaceful and stable relations with neighbours. "There cannot be progress without stability and peace and Bangladesh is proving to be the 'flagbearer' of the message. India's relation with Bangladesh is becoming a model for South Asia," he added.

Further, the former envoy said that Modi's visit to Orakandi in Bangladesh would send a positive message to the Matua and other Scheduled Caste communities in India. Members of the Matua community who have their roots in Bangladesh is a significantly large population in the poll-bound West Bengal. However, the former diplomat opined that Modi's visit to Orakandi would not be influence voters in West Bengal.

The Prime Minister had arrived at the Dhaka airport earlier today for his two-day visit to Bangladesh. He received a warm welcome from his counterpart Sheikh Hasina.

Modi later visited the National Martyrs' Memorial in Savar Upazila, Dhaka and laid a wreath to commemorate the fallen freedom fighters of the 1971 Liberation War. He also received a warm welcome from members of the Indian diaspora at a hotel in Dhaka.

The Prime Minister's visit comes as Bangladesh is celebrating its 50th independence day and the centennial birth anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. PM Modi will later call on Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid during the visit and will hold restricted delegation-level talks with his counterpart Hasina.

It is Modi's first foreign visit since the COVID-19 outbreak.