The seventh round of the India-Bangladesh Joint Consultative Commission (JCC) was held in New Delhi on June 19, 2022. The JCC was co-chaired by the External Affairs Minister of India, Dr. S. Jaishankar and Dr. A.K. Abdul Momen, M.P., Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh.
The seventh edition of the India-Bangladesh JCC began with a warm recollection of the mutual ties shared by both sides, borne out of the shared sacrifices of the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh. Significantly, this event has forged close historical and friendly relations that surpass the traditional concept of a strategic partnership.
Both the Ministers welcomed the further enhancement of bilateral ties with the remarkable visits by both the President and the Prime Minister of India to Bangladesh in 2021 to jointly commemorate three epochal events:
- The birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
- The fiftieth anniversary of the independence of Bangladesh
- The golden anniversary of India-Bangladesh diplomatic ties.
The trailer of the jointly produced biopic on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, “Mujib-making of a nation” was launched at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2022. This served as a testimony of the mutual respect shared by the two countries which has strengthened even more in the last decade.
This was the first in-person JCC meeting since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, its previous edition was held virtually in September, 2020. Both the Ministers acknowledged the efforts undertaken by both countries, together in the fight against Covid-19. The Ministers reviewed all areas of ongoing cooperation, including the implementation of decisions taken during the last session of JCC in September 2020, the Virtual Summit between the Prime Ministers of both countries in December 2020 and the visits of President Ram Nath Kovind in December 2021 and of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March 2021.
Despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, both countries have worked closer than ever before in every sector from defence and border management to mutually beneficial trade and investment flows. Both the countries have contributed to the strengthening of sub-regional multimodal connectivity, greater power and energy cooperation, developmental assistance and capacity-building, and cultural and closer people-to-people ties as reported by the MEA.
Both the ministers have agreed to work even more closely together to further deepen and strengthen cooperation in the areas of common rivers and water resources management, cybersecurity and IT, renewable energy, agriculture and food security, sustainable trade, climate change and disaster management.
There have been intensive engagements through various bilateral mechanisms between both the countries which both the Ministers acknowledged and appreciated. Both agreed to further boost partnership-building efforts with renewed vigour and regularity. In this regard, both Ministers tasked their officials to accelerate cooperation which will be mutually beneficial to people on both sides.
During his visit to New Delhi, the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, Mr. Momen also paid a courtesy call on the Indian Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu and other dignitaries of the Government of India.
The 8th round of the India-Bangladesh JCC will be held in Bangladesh in 2023 as mutually agreed by both the Ministers.
