Source : Asian News International (ANI)
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| Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra (Photo/ANI) |
New Delhi: India has sent four lakh metric tonnes of wheat to Bangladesh, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said on Tuesday.
He added that the supply of wheat in future depended on the situation of the crop in India and Bangladesh’s needs. Addressing a special media briefing on the visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Kwatra said, “India has sent 4 lakh metric tonnes of wheat to Bangladesh.”
Answering a query on whether a Line of Credit was given for some projects, Kwatra said, “The range of development cooperation partnership projects that we do with Bangladesh and indeed with most of our neighbouring countries is quite extensive and the total development cooperation envelope, if you want to look at in case of Bangladesh, the spread is across multiple domains of infrastructure, this includes railway connectivity project, road projects, the building of bridges etc. And it is serviced through instruments of both lines of credit but also grant projects and it runs into tens and thousands of crore.”
He also recalled two MoUs signed between the two countries which were about connectivity. Seven MoUs have been signed between India and Bangladesh during the visit of Sheikh Hasina to India.
Regarding railway projects, Foreign Secretary Kwatra said that two MoUs have been signed between the two countries. One is the training of Bangladesh railway personnel in India and the second one is the collaboration in IT systems such as kiosks and other IT applications or essentially Bangladesh railways.
When Kwatra was asked about the Bangladesh financial crisis, then he made clear that there was no such discussion specifically on ‘crisis’. “But PM Modi made it very clear to Sheikh Hasina that India’s development cooperation assistance is economic partnership and trade spent engagement is there to serve the objectives of India-Bangladesh strategic partnership,” he added.
During the special briefing, Kwatra said that the official conversation on a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) to begin this year and be complete in time for Bangladesh’s final graduation from the LDC status.
The defence LoC between the two countries is 500 million and was signed earlier this week, the Foreign Secretary added.
Talking about space cooperation, Kwatra said that there is an MoU in the area of space technology, which is signed between the new space India Limited, a public sector undertaking in the department of space, and the Bangladesh satellite company limited essentially aimed at and intended to strengthen the cooperation between the two countries in the use of space technologies for peaceful purpose.
Kwatra stated that Bangladesh has agreed to designate India oil cooperation limited as a g2d supplier for the oil products.
Answering the query about UPI, Foreign Secretary said that the discussions on UPI is still under discussion and is been progressing well.
