Swaraj in B'desh stresses on combating terrorism

India and Bangladesh on Sunday discussed the challenges of terrorism, radicalisation and extremism during the course of fourth Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) meeting here.

Addressing the media after the JCC meeting, India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said, "We will continue to fight this scourge together and along with other like-minded countries."

Swaraj co-chaired the JCC meeting with Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, where both leaders reviewed various aspects of bilateral relations.

"We are both determined to protect our societies from the threat of ideologies of hate, violence and terror by adopting a zero tolerance policy and a comprehensive approach in fighting violent extremism and terrorism at all levels," Swaraj said.

External Affairs Minister further emphasised that India's relations with Bangladesh are based on fraternal ties and are reflective of an all encompassing partnership based on sovereignty and understanding.

"Our discussion today in the course of 4th JCC meeting have been extremely useful, even more important is the atmosphere of trust and understanding in which we carried out our discussion," Swaraj said.

"India attaches the utmost importance to its relation with Bangladesh as our partnership today touches upon virtually over all the areas of human endeavour," she added.

Swaraj highlighted that India has been a long standing and reliable development partner of Bangladesh.

"We are satisfied with progress achieved in areas such as trade and investment, security, connectivity, border management, power, energy, shipping, people to people exchanges, to name a few," she said.

India has extended three lines of credit amounting to USD 8 billion to Bangladesh so far. This is by far the largest development assistance that India has extended to any country worldwide.

"We are confident that this credit will be invaluable to Bangladesh as it pursues its developmental priorities, especially in the areas of infrastructure development," Swaraj said.

She further highlighted that the grant projects by India have contributed in the betterment of Bangladesh's infrastructure.

"In the past three years alone, 24 such grant projects have been completed which include construction of students' hostels, tube-wells, cultural centres, orphanages etc," Swaraj said.

"Presently 58 projects, including city development projects in Rajshahi, Khulna and Sylhet, are under implementation. Tomorrow, we will launch another 15 projects in the areas of education, health, culture and community development," She added.

External Affairs Minister was greeted by Bangladesh Foreign Minister and the High Commissioner of India Harsh Shringla on her arrival in Dhaka earlier today.

Swaraj, who is on two-day visit, will also be meeting Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

This is Swaraj's second visit to Bangladesh. She last visited the country in 2014.

The third JCC meeting was held in New Delhi in 2014.

India and Bangladesh have witnessed a deepening of bilateral economic cooperation in recent years, particularly in terms of increasing volumes of trade and investment flows.