by Staff Correspondent,

Dhaka – India has total support to the leadership of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, a senior Indian diplomat said in Dhaka in Wednesday.

“We’ve total support to you and your leadership,” Indian External Affairs Secretary Vinay Kwatra was quoted to have said during his courtesy visit to the Prime Minister, Hasina.

A spokesman of the Prime Minister Office, Nazrul Islam, briefed the reporters after the meeting at the Prime Minister’s official Ganabhaban residence.

Kwatra arrived in Dhaka on a brief visit to hold talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart Masud Bin Momen. His visit is considered important ahead of Bangladesh’s national elections slated for early next year voting.

Prime Minister Hasina said Bangladesh considered India as a trusted friend and expressed hope that this friendship would strengthen further.

Kwatra told Sheikh Hasina that the neighbouring country would remain on Bangladesh side in its development endevours including political and economic progresses, Nazrul said.

He said the Indian official invited Sheikh Hasina to the 18th edition of the Group of Twenty (G20) Summit which would take place in New Delhi on September 9-10 this year.

 The premier accepted the invitation and extended thanks to her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, who as the current chair of the G-20 grouping of larger economies, invited Bangladesh as a “guest country” in its all meetings.

According to the spokesman the Indian official described Dhaka-New Delhi ties to be “very firm” and said the entire world now valued the relationships as it reached to a strategic level.

“This relationship is being strengthened further,” he added.
Hasina said both countries could work on the socio-economic development of the two closed-door neighbors.

New Delhi was trying to make the terms and conditions of Indian Line of Credit (LoC) easier so Bangladesh could avail the credit and repay it easily, he said adding that both the countries could be used their own currencies to run bilateral trades and businesses.

Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary M Tofazzel Hossain Miah, Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen and Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pranay Verma were present.

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