State Minister for Water Resources Zahid Farooque on Friday said that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on interim water sharing of Kushiyara river will be signed during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India scheduled for September first week. He said the agreed draft of the MoU has been sent to the Indian Cabinet to complete the procedures before the signing. “We firmly believe that the MoU will be signed when our Prime Minister will be visiting India,” the State Minister told reporters at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport after returning from New Delhi. He led the Bangladesh delegation at the Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) meeting held in New Delhi on Thursday. The JRC meeting was held after a pause of 12 years. Zahid informed that India has agreed to provide 153 cusec water of Kushiyara river to Bangladesh. Responding to a question, the State Minister said the agreement on the Teesta water sharing remained prepared but its signing is getting delayed due to the objection of the Chief Minister of West Bengal. “We kept them under pressure. We firmly believe that we will soon see a solution to that end,” he said, referring to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s repeated call for concluding the long-pending Teesta water sharing deal. At the 38th ministerial level JRC meeting, the two countries discussed “issues related to water-sharing treaties” of various rivers, including Teesta and Ganga. Both sides at the meeting also welcomed finalization of the design and location of water intake point on the Feni River to meet the drinking water needs of Sabroom town in Tripura as per the October 2019 Bangladesh-India MoU on this subject. One of the important areas of cooperation, where India has been assisting Bangladesh, is sharing of real time flood data.  India has recently extended the period of flood data sharing beyond 15 October to help Bangladesh address unforeseen flood events. Read: Dhaka, Delhi finalise text of MoU on interim water sharing of Kushiyara river Bangladesh and India share 54 rivers, of which seven rivers have been identified earlier for developing the framework of water sharing agreements on priority.  During the meeting, it has been agreed to widen this area of ongoing cooperation by including eight more rivers for data exchange.  The matter will be further discussed at the technical level committee of JRC. The discussions during the JRC meeting were held on a number of ongoing bilateral issues of mutual interest including river water sharing of common rivers, sharing of flood data, addressing river pollution, conducting joint studies on sedimentation management, river bank protection works etc. The JRC meeting was preceded by water resources secretary-level interaction on Tuesday. The Joint Rivers Commission of Bangladesh and India was constituted in 1972 as a bilateral mechanism to address issues of mutual interest on common transboundary rivers.

Speakers at a dialogue have called on Bangladesh and India to boost cooperation in protecting and promoting the ecosystem services of the Meghna River basin for the benefit of 50 million people living in the region shared by the two countries. The two neighbours should work together to the make the basin as one the most vibrant regions of South Asia, Planning Minister Abdul Mannan said. "There is no alternative to cooperation and working together," he said while addressing the first ever knowledge forum on the Meghna River basin, the minister said, according to a release from International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on Saturday. It is estimated that more than 50 million people in Bangladesh and India depend on the ecosystem services provided by the basin, including indigenous forest dependent communities such as the Khasi, Garo, and Jaintia; and the fishermen and farmers depending on the extensive wetlands (Haors) of Sylhet region in Bangladesh.    R. R. Sambharia, representing India’s Ministry of Jal Shakti and Senior Joint Commissioner, Ground Water and Flood Management, advised the IUCN to share the result of the forum with the Joint River Commission (JRC) of Bangladesh and India, and its dissemination to the relevant government departments at the state level.   To maintain the momentum created through the Meghna Knowledge Forum (MKF) 2021 and to attract international donor agencies to the Meghna River basin, IUCN will disseminate the forum outcomes at the bilateral and global platforms, such as IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille France planned in September 2021.     Read: Integrated policy approach needed for management of Barak Meghna River Basin

The Indian Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has given its ex post facto approval to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Bangladesh  on the establishment of a framework of cooperation in the area of trade remedial measures. The MoU seeks to foster better cooperation between the relevant authorities of both the countries so as to discourage unfair trade practices and promote rule based bilateral trading between the two countries, said the Press Information Bureau of India on Tuesday. Also Read: Bangladesh, India partners in development: Riva Director General of Trade Remedies, Republic of India and the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission signed the MoU on March 27. The primary objective of the MoU is to promote cooperation between the two countries in the area of Trade Remedies, covering the broad activities related to exchange of information, undertaking capacity building activities and activities in accordance with various provisions of World Trade Organization in the area of anti-dumping, countervailing and safeguard measures in bilateral trade between India and Bangladesh. Also Read: Bangladesh, India need to work together: Jeffrey Sachs    

State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam on Tuesday said Bangladesh and India, as the closest neighbours, will continue to work together to establish a secure South Asia for the benefit of all people.

Bangladesh has invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Bangladesh on March 26 in person to jointly celebrate the Independence Day of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh will explore all the avenues to get a quick access to COVID-19 vaccine and choose one which will be safer and useful for Bangladesh, said Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen.