India, Bangladesh to consider trade in local currencies

NEW DELHI: India and Bangladesh will consider trading in local currencies. This was amongst the things that were discussed when Foreign Secretary, Vinay Mohan Kwatra met with Bangladesh’s Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, in Gono Bhaban, Dhaka, on Wednesday. 

India and Bangladesh are in the process of simplifying the terms and conditions of the Indian Line of Credit (LoC) to Bangladesh to enable Bangladesh to repay quickly.

"You and your leadership have our total support. India will remain beside Bangladesh during its development journey, including political and economic progress," Foreign Secretary Kwatra said when he met PM Hasina. Amongst those present in the meeting were India’s Ambassador to Dhaka, Pranay Verma and Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen.

Meanwhile, PM Hasina has accepted Foreign Secretary Kwatra’s invitation to attend the G20 Summit in New Delhi, which will be held on the 9th and 10th of September.

India has invited Bangladesh as a 'guest country' to all its meetings.

Describing the bilateral ties between the two neighbouring countries as very firm, Kwatra said the whole world now values the Bangladesh-India relationships, which has already reached a strategic level. This relationship is being strengthened further.

"Bangladesh is the pivot of India’s 'Neighbourhood First Policy' and a key partner of its 'Act East Policy',’’ FS Kwatra said. 

PM Hasina said that she hoped this friendship would deepen further and both nations would work on the socio-economic development of their people.

Both sides agreed to further strengthen the ongoing bilateral cooperation in diverse areas, including trade and investment, connectivity, power and energy, defence and security and people-to-people ties.

Both countries also agreed to extend reciprocal support to each other’s upcoming candidature for Non-Permanent membership of the UN Security Council.