Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday requested her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to ensure uninterrupted supply of essential commodities as the two leaders held a bilateral meeting in New Delhi ahead of the G20 Summit beginning today in the Indian capital.As Hasina raised outstanding issues like bilateral and regional connectivity for discussion, Modi underlined the need for resolving the issues through discussion between the two countries at official level.

‘You know India is our second biggest trade partner. Our prime minister has requested the Indian government to ensure uninterrupted supply of essential commodities,’ foreign minister AK Abdul Momen told a press briefing after the bilateral talks held at the official residence of Modi.Bangladesh’s commodity market turns volatile when India suspends exports of any essential items like onion and garlic.

About the outcome of the outstanding issues, including the longstanding Teesta water sharing deal, Momen said that the Indian prime minister underlined the need for resolving the outstanding issues through discussion at official level. 

Asked whether they discussed Bangladesh’s next general election, Momen told reporters that it was not discussed in their presence.He, however, said that bilateral and multilateral issues were discussed in the talks. Prime minister Hasina sought the Indian prime minister’s assistance in speedy repatriation of Rohingyas to their homeland Myanmar, the foreign minister said.

Momen said that Modi expressed his gratitude to Hasina for her role in ensuring ‘prevailing peaceful situation in North-Eastern region of India’.He said that both the prime ministers expressed satisfaction over the existing deep relationship between the two neighbouring countries and also agreed to further their relationship. 

Before leaving for New Delhi with Hasina, the foreign minister said in Dhaka on Thursday that  Dhaka would convey the message that it did not want to see any ‘proxy war in the Indo-Pacific region’ and would press for regional stability in the bilateral talks as well as in the G20 Summit.  

The prime minister on Friday afternoon left Dhaka on a three-day visit to India to join the G20 Summit at the invitation of the Indian prime minister.Momen earlier said that all bilateral issues, including Teesta water sharing between Bangladesh and India, the Rohingya crisis, and regional stability, would be discussed in the talks between the two prime ministers, besides regional connectivity and food and energy security.

Exactly 12 years ago, in September 2011, Bangladesh came the closest to signing an agreement for the Teesta River water sharing during a visit by then Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh.

The agreement was, however, not signed eventually, following opposition from West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.India has kept withdrawing water from the Teesta unilaterally for irrigation, causing drought in the dry season and releasing water in monsoons that cause frequent flash floods in Bangladesh’s poverty-ridden northern districts.

After the bilateral talks between the two prime ministers, Bangladesh and India signed three memorandums of understanding — Cooperation in Agricultural Research and Education, Extension of Cultural Exchange Programme from 2023 to 2025 and the other between Bangladesh Bank and the NPCI International Payments Limited of India for network connectivity to facilitate transactions in rupee and taka between the two countries, foreign minister AK Abdul Momen said while briefing reporters. Sheikh Hasina earlier visited India in September 2022.