New Delhi

India and Bangladesh will be holding the seventh meeting of the Joint Consultative Commission (JCC) in New Delhi on Sunday.

The JCC will take place in Hyderabad House and will be co-chaired by Dr. S. Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister of India and Dr. A. K. Abdul Momen, Foreign Minister of Bangladesh. Dr Momen who is expected to arrive here on Saturday afternoon. Before returning to Dhaka on Monday afternoon, he will also call on the Vice President, Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu.

According to the MEA, this will be the first physical JCC meeting convened since the onset of Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. The previous edition was held virtually in 2020.

The JCC will review the entire gamut of bilateral relations, including cooperation in the wake of Covid-19, border management and security, trade and investment,connectivity, energy, water resources, development partnership and regional and multilateral issues.

India Bangladesh ties have been on the upswing. It is noteworthy that Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose Bangladesh for his first overseas visit on March 26-27 last year to participate in the golden jubilee celebrations of the independence of Bangladesh and the birth centenary of Banganandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the iconic leader of Bangladesh's freedom struggle. His visit also coincided with the 50th year of the establishment of diplomatic relations bewteen India and Bangladesh. 

Mr Modi has said that both the countries are witnessing the 'Shonali Adhyay' in their ties. External Affairs Minister Dr Jaishankar has also described the relationship as a role model in the region.

Dr Smruti Pattanaik, Research Fellow at the New Delhi based Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis told Awaz The Voice that the meeting provides the two sides a platform to take stock of many dimensions of the relationship especially the line of credit of nearly USD10 billion extended by India to Bangladesh since 2011.