Bangladesh, India to ink series of deals during Modi's visit

Bangladesh is set to sign a number of agreements and MoUs with India during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit who is scheduled to arrive here on Saturday morning.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali made the remarks Friday while briefing media at the Foreign Ministry on the visit.

The deals and MoUs include bilateral trade agreement, inland water protoc, coastal shipping deal, bilateral cooperation deal between BSTI (Bangladesh standards and testing institution) and BIS (Bureau of Indian standards), MoU on Human Trafficking, MoU on Fake Currency Notes, MoU between Coast Guards of Bangladesh and India and exchange of documents on Land Boundary Agreement, he said.

Bangladesh hopes that the deals will help boost regional connectivity, and promote trade and commerce.

There might be an announcement on fresh line of credit worth two billion U.S. dollars, but the foreign minister said it is under process and an announcement will be there once it is decided.

Talking on the issue, Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque said there will be a number of new elements in the trade deal but modalities will be informed later.

He said there will be focus on boosting regional trade, facilitating trade and services.

Mahmood Ali said Dhaka will mainly focus on connectivity issues during talks with Modi and work is on to build South Asia as an integrated region.

On Teesta water sharing deal, he said the Teesta issue was being discussed behind the seen and urged all to have patience a bit for getting concrete results.

"Discussion is on behind your eyes. Let the discussion on and success will come. We're certainly hopeful. You have to have patience a bit," he told reporters.

The foreign minister said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's visit indicates that discussion on Teesta is on and all will know when success arrives regarding the issue.

Mahmood Ali, like his Indian counterpart Sushma Sawraj, however, made it clear that the Teesta issue will not be discussed during Modi's visit.

He also said he is not disappointed and Teesta is an ongoing process. "You will know once results are there."

The foreign minister also said the relations between Bangladesh and India have reached a "historic height" in recent days. Endi