Bangladesh’s support to India’s UNSC dream to bolster South Asia cooperation

NEW YORK: Bolstering India’s ambitions for a permanent membership in an expanded UN Security Council, Bangladesh reiterated its support for India’s permanent membership.Taking the positive momentum in the bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh further, the leaders of the two countries Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina held a meet on the sidelines of the ongoing 70th anniversary celebrations of the United Nations (UN) in New York.

Voicing her support for India’s permanent seat in United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Ms Hasina said, “There must be a reform of the UNSC and the 70th anniversary of the UN affords an excellent opportunity to the international community to speed up efforts and complete the reforms process.”

Mr Modi and Ms Hasina also discussed the need to reform other institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank to give a greater say to the developing countries. The two leaders met on September 24 in New York to review the bilateral relations. The UN General Assembly recently approved, by consensus, to have text-based negotiations on reforming the UNSC. This bolstered the ambitions of the G-4 countries, India, Japan, Germany and Brazil who are all aspiring to be permanent members in an expanded UNSC.

The two countries recently signed a historic Land Boundary Agreement in which they exchanged enclaves and gave access to citizenship to the people who were deprived of their due because of the dispute between the two countries for years.

Speaking about the progress made on the agreement between the two countries, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup said, “Both of them expressed great happiness at the very smooth manner in which the Land Boundary Agreement had been implemented. They look forward to the continued implementation of the agreement in the coming months.”

Discussions issues such as infrastructure, connectivity and Sustainable Development Goals figured in the talks, the two leaders also reviewed the progress made on the Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal (BBIN) corridor, a new sub-regional grouping between the four countries to improve connectivity and regional trade in South Asia.

The continuity in engagement at regular intervals between leaders of the two countries augurs well for the bilateral relations between the two countries that took many years to overcome. The commitment shown by the two countries to strengthen relations will have a positive impact on enhancing cooperation in South Asia.

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