Looking forward to talks with PM Narendra Modi to resolve issues: Sheikh Hasina

DHAKA: Premier Sheikh Hasina has said she is looking forward to a successful engagement on all outstanding issues between Bangladesh and India during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit next week.

Hasina, during a call on by CPI(M)'s newly appointed General Secretary Sitaram Yechury here last evening, expressed hope that the trade agreements to be signed between the two countries would be beneficial for the people.

At the meeting which lasted almost an hour, Hasina thanked the CPI(M) for its wholehearted support to the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) and said her country was eager to further deepen mutual cooperation with India and all its neighbours for the betterment and welfare of the people of the region.

Earlier this month, Indian Parliament had passed a historic constitutional amendment bill seeking to settle India's 41-year-old border issue with Bangladesh. The bill will operationalise the 1974 India-Bangladesh Land Boundary agreement that provides for exchange of 161 enclaves adversely-held by the the two countries.

Hasina expressed hope that the trade agreements to be concluded between the countries of the region would be beneficial for the people, a CPI(M) statement said.

Observing that all major political parties stood in favour of the resolution of the LBA issue, Yechury said he hoped that the outstanding issues between India and Bangladesh would be resolved during the upcoming Bangladesh visit of Prime Minister Modi.

Hasina too said she was looking forward to such a successful engagement between the two countries during Modi's two-day visit from June 6.

CPI(M) leader Gautam Das, who accompanied Yechury, spoke about Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar's invitation to Hasina for the inaugural ceremony of the Muktijuddho (liberation war) Memorial Park in the state.

Hasina accepted the invitation and promised to attend the programme and observed that the people of Bangladesh have a "special soft corner" for Tripura which had provided food, shelter and all kinds of help during the country's 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.

She also referred to the role of the CPl(M) and Jyoti Basu during the days of the liberation war and thanked all Chief Ministers of Indian states sharing land boundary with Bangladesh, including Sarkar, for the LBA, the statement said.

Yechury, also CPI(M)'s parliamentary group leader, is in Dhaka on a two-day visit to join an international conference on 'combating fundamentalism and imperialism in South Asia' being hosted by Bangladesh Workers Party, coinciding with the 100th birth anniversary of its founder Amol Bose.

Workers Party is an ally of Prime Minister Hasina's Awami League-led centre-left grand alliance government, with its president Rashed Khan Menon being a senior member of the cabinet.

Leaders of several other left leaning parties of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal have also rallied in Bangladesh capital to join the conference, also being attended by the leftist organisations in the country.