India Empire interview with H.E. Mr Syed Muazzem Ali,
                                    High Commissioner of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh to India

You recently mentioned that Indo-Bangladesh relations are at a high point. Can you please elaborate on this statement?
On the eve of our Forty Seventh Anniversary of our Independence and National day, permit me to recall, with deep appreciation and gratitude, the wholehearted support and assistance which we had received from the Government and people of India during the critical period of our nationhood. The emotional bonds stemming from that cooperation remain a dominant factor in Bangladesh’s political, cultural and social wave. Our multifaceted relations are rooted in our shared history, geographical proximity and commonality in our culture and heritage.

The current state of our bilateral relations has been termed as “best ever” and it virtually includes cooperation in all areas. Since assumption of power for the second time in 2009, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, able daughter of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, has been consistently trying to improve mutual trust and cooperation, and she has brought in a change in our mindset in our bilateral ties. There is now a greater recognition on both sides that the destinies of our two neighboring countries are inescapably intertwined and we must grow together. Likewise, our stability and prosperity are inextricably linked with each other.

Happily Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after assumption of office nearly four years ago, had also expressed his keen desire to promote all-round bilateral cooperation. His historic visit to Bangladesh in June 2015 had taken our ties to newer heights. Sixty-eight years after partition, and forty-one years after the conclusion of the Indira-Mujib Border Accord of 1974, the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) between the two countries was concluded and ratified in 2015. The successful conclusion of the Land Boundary Agreement also signaled fulfillment of the vision of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who had taken the initiative soon after the independence of Bangladesh. The maritime boundary between our two countries has also been clearly demarcated. So there are no disputed boundaries between our two countries.