India launches 4 projects in Bangladesh

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 11

India unveiled its soft power diplomacy with the inauguration of four development projects in Bangladesh today.

A day after the code of conduct came into force, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a video conference with his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina, their sixth, to announce initiation of the four projects related to accessible healthcare, drinking water supply, public transport and linking premier research centres.

“This cooperation for mutual benefit not only brings prosperity, it also reduces space for extremism. In the last five years, cooperation in security and our shared strong commitment to eradicate terror has developed in tandem with closer political cooperation and committed efforts to improve the lives of our people,” observed External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

In the years ahead, PM Modi visualised a fully integrated neighbourhood in which transport and energy links are restored or built anew to permit easy movement of goods, services and people. The two PMs unveiled e-plaques for supply of buses and trucks, inauguration of 36 community clinics, 11 water treatment plants and extension of India’s National Knowledge Network to Bangladesh.