DHAKA, 31 March 2022, (TON): State minister for foreign affairs M Shahriar Alam said “constructive India-Bangladesh ties ‘could be a major stabilising factor’ for the South Asian region as a whole.”

He said this at a seminar on Bangladesh-India relations organised by Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies which was attended by local and Indian experts.

Mentioning the rising turmoil around borders of India, he said “a stable and moderate Bangladesh as a partner ‘is India’s natural choice for its long-lasting interests.”

Regarding the economic interdependence between the two countries, he said that thousands of Indians ‘are working in various sectors in Bangladesh, which ‘is the fourth remittance earning country for India.

India received the highest number of tourists from Bangladesh and Indian hospitals treated the highest number of Bangladeshi patients.

From ‘neighbourhood first’ to ‘act east,’ from connectivity to trade, from security to development, Dhaka’s centrality to India’s regional outlook ‘is key’ not only to India realising its own interests but also for larger regional imperatives, said the state minister.