After the meeting, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali in his statement said India agreed to “positively consider” these proposals.

“India also agreed to facilitate import of electricity to Bangladesh from hydro projects in Nepal,” he said. He praised India as the “most important, trusted and friendly” neighbour.

His Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj said both countries achieved “a great deal, only because of the friendship between us and our understanding that neighbours must help each other.”

“India is now supplying 660MW of much-needed power to the Bangladesh people and this figure will double, if not triple, in the foreseeable future,” she said.

Ali said the two neighbours were cooperating in many ways to enhance connectivity through road, rail and waterways.

“We proposed some new regional connectivity initiatives,” he said.

Those include: Dhaka-Chennai-Colombo air connectivity, Chittagong-Kolkata-Colombo shipping connectivity, Panchgarh-Shiliguri rail link, internet connectivity with Bhutan through Indian territory, trade route connecting Nakugaon Land Port [Bangladesh] to Gayleyphung [Bhutan] via Dalu [India].

He said during the meeting they also agreed that BBIN Motor Vehicle Agreement will be implemented between Bangladesh, India and Nepal [BIN] through exchange of letters keeping provision for Bhutan to join later.

 Ali said they agreed that MoU for trilateral hydropower cooperation among Bangladesh, India and Bhutan would be signed soon.

According to Bangladesh News 24, in additional to the current import of 660 MW, India agreed to supply 340 MW more electricity from Tripura through Comilla grid, he said.