Modi pledges to support Bangladesh for sustainable Rohingya repatriation

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has held out an assurance to his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina New Delhi’s “constructive and positive approach to support solutions towards safe and sustainable repatriation” of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.

Diplomatic sources said Modi conveyed this during a bilateral meeting with Sheikh Hasina at his official residence in New Delhi on Friday.

The Rohingya issue was raised by the Bangladesh Prime Minister who sought Modi’s support in finding a solution to it.

A readout issued by the Indian PMO last night said “with regard to the regional situation, Prime Minister Modi expressed appreciation of the burden shouldered by Bangladesh in hosting over a million persons displaced from Rakhine State in Myanmar, and conveyed India's constructive and positive approach to support solutions towards safe and sustainable repatriation of the refugees.”

Hasina is now on a visit to India as its guest country to participate in the G-20 Leaders Summit on 9-10 September.

The two leaders discussed the entire gamut of bilateral cooperation including political and security cooperation, border management, trade and connectivity, water resources, power and energy, development cooperation, cultural and people to people ties, the readout said adding the current developments in the region and cooperation in the multilateral fora were also discussed.

The two leaders welcomed the operationalisation of the agreement on the use of Chattogram and Mongla ports and commissioning of the India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline.

They also expressed appreciation for operationalisation of settlement of bilateral trade in INR and encouraged the business community on both sides to utilise the mechanism.

Hasina and Modi looked forward to beginning of negotiations on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), covering trade in goods, services, and protecting and promoting investment, said the readout.

Expressing satisfaction at the implementation of development cooperation projects, the two Prime Ministers looked forward to the joint inauguration of Agartala-Akhaura rail link, Unit-II of the Maitri Power Plant and Khulna-Mongla rail link at a convenient date later.

The Indian side welcomed the Indo-Pacific outlook announced by Bangladesh recently.