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Modi assured us not to be worried over NRC: Hasina

By KALYAN BAROOAH

NEW DELHI, Oct 4 - Following an assurance by India, Bangladesh�s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said that they are satisfied with the assertion by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Dhaka should not be worried over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise in Assam.

The Bangladeshi Prime Minister, who arrived in India on Thursday to take part in the India Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum, though may again raise the issue during the bilateral meeting scheduled for Saturday, when she will formally meet Prime Minister Modi in Hyderabad House.

At a reception on Thursday evening hosted in her honour by Bangladesh High Commission, she told newsmen that Bangladesh is satisfied with Prime Minister Modi�s assurance given on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that Bangladesh should not be worried over the NRC being implemented in Assam. �I don�t see any problem. I had a talk with Prime Minister Modi. Everything is OK,� Hasina said ahead of tomorrow�s meeting.

It was reported that Hasina conveyed to Modi that the NRC has become a matter of �great concern� for Bangladesh. She was assured that there is �nothing to be worried� about since India and Bangladesh have good relations.

While the NRC could figure during discussions between the two Prime Ministers, India is unlikely to change its position conveyed in New York,� sources said.

Meanwhile, Raveesh Kumar, Spokesman, Ministry of External Affairs, told newsmen today that six-seven documents are likely to be signed during the delegation-level talks on Saturday. Declining to name the ventures, Kumar said that the two Prime Ministers are jointly going to inaugurate three projects.

On NRC, he asserted that India has been saying that it is an on-going Supreme Court-mandated exercise and due process has to be completed.

Significantly, ahead of the delegation-level talks tomorrow, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a meeting. The MEA Spokesman, however, declined to reveal anything stating that he has not been briefed about it.

Addressing the Indian trade organisations on Friday Hasina said, �We also want to see trade and investment together where Indian big investors can set up industries in Bangladesh and export the products to the northeastern States of India and to the South-East Asian countries taking advantage of the improved connectivity between us.�

The volume of bilateral trade has steadily grown in the past years and it now stands at nearly $ 10 billion. In 2018, Bangladesh was India�s eighth largest export destination with $ 8.8 billion export, while our export to India had also crossed $ 1 billion mark for the first time last year. But there is a lot of scope for further deepening our relations in the area of trade and investment. The balance of trade is still largely in India�s favour, she added.

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