PM Narendra Modi thanked Bangladesh for solidarity after Uri attack: MEA

BENAULIM (GOA): Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina for showing solidarity with India after the Uri terror attack, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Monday.

"Modi thanked Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for showing solidarity with India after the Uri attack," MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said, briefing newspersons a day after the Modi-Hasina bilateral meet held on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit here.

He said that Modi during his talks with Hasina also spoke in favour of seamless cross-border travel within the region. "I want that countries of our region should be able to visit each other without any protocol per se", Swarup quoted Modi as saying. The Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal sub grouping has inked the Motor Vehicle Agreement to ensure seamless movement of motor vehicles across the borders.

Swarup also said that Modi applauded the video conferencing with Bangladesh held in the past, and said, "The video conferencing went off very well and several projects were launched through it" - referring to the joint inauguration of the Petrapole Integrated Check Post through through video-conferencing in July.

Following last month's cross-border terror attack on an Indian Army camp at Jammu and Kashmir's Uri that claimed the lives of 19 Indian soldiers, India invited countries belonging to the Bimstec (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) grouping to the BRICS summit over Saarc.

The BRICS-Bimstec Outreach Summit was held here after the BRICS Summit. Bimstec nations are: Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal.