India is keen to take its relationship with Bangladesh further. Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal made the comment on Friday in reply to a journalist’s question at the regular briefing at India’s foreign ministry.
At the briefing a journalist noted that Bangladesh had appointed two press officers in India, and that there had been controversy over their past anti-India posts on social media. The journalist asked for India’s reaction. In reply Randhir Jaiswal said that on the Bangladesh matter they had been informed that a new officer had been appointed.
“We are keen to work with the Bangladesh High Commission here and take the relationship between the two countries further,” he said. He was asked whether Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Tarique Rahman had been invited to the BRICS summit. In reply Randhir Jaiswal said they had no information to share on the BRICS summit at this moment, and that an announcement would be made in due course.
The information was published on the website of India’s foreign ministry. At the briefing a journalist named Goutam Lahiri asked whether the US ambassador, who is coming to Dhaka shortly, had informed the foreign ministry about it, and whether the ministry knew the purpose of the visit. In reply Randhir Jaiswal said they had no information about the US ambassador’s visit.
At the briefing Randhir Jaiswal also spoke on Pakistan, ASEAN, the Indus waters treaty and other matters. At the foreign ministry’s weekly press briefing he set out the government’s position on several important issues. Pakistan’s allegations, the Indus waters treaty, flooding on the Chenab river, China, Bangladesh and the Indian sailors killed in the Ukraine-Russia conflict all came up.
New Delhi has completely rejected the allegations Pakistan raised against India at the ASEAN forum. Randhir Jaiswal said India had already answered every allegation raised by Pakistan in a formal statement. Pakistan is trying to run its own propaganda by exploiting religious narratives, using terms such as “Fitna al-Hindustan,” he said.
The spokesperson said India’s position on the Indus waters treaty remains unchanged. The Indus waters treaty will remain suspended until Pakistan credibly and permanently stops supporting cross-border terrorism, he said.
Answering a question on the issue of China’s sovereignty, Jaiswal said India has never violated China’s sovereignty. Rather, he claimed, China has since 1963 illegally occupied some areas of India’s Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. He also repeated India’s objection to various Chinese projects in territory India claims.
India has also rejected the allegation in Pakistani media that it deliberately caused flooding in Pakistan by releasing water into the Chenab river. Jaiswal said the water in the Chenab rose because of heavy rain from 20 to 23 July in Jammu and the upstream areas around it. He claimed that Pakistan’s Lahore-based Flood Forecasting Division gave the same explanation in its flood warning of 22 July.
In his words, the rise in the river’s flow was a normal hydrological response, not the result of any deliberate Indian action.
Jaiswal also rejected the allegation that India had concealed flood-related information. He said the river’s flow at that time had not reached a level that would have required a special flood warning to be issued.
On humanitarian grounds, however, India will share flood-related information with Pakistan through diplomatic channels in future if needed, as it did last year.
Answering a question about allegations of foreign funding in the continuing student protests in India, the foreign ministry spokesperson said he had no information to share on the matter.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report