Hn_Ani2_Dhaka_Former_Bangladesh_Ambasador_Mashfee_Binte_Shams_17-57-40

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Transcript

00:00When are elections are expected in Bangladesh?

00:04That is the question everybody is asking, even the other day somebody was interviewing

00:10our honourable chief advisor, asking him when the elections would be taking place.

00:17And I think the answer that he gave was that elections would take place when everything,

00:23the conditions are ready and everybody is ready for the elections.

00:27And then I think when the situation is conducive to holding of elections, that is when the

00:36elections will take place.

00:40And the recent visit of the Indian foreign secretary, after the visit the Bangladesh

00:45foreign secretary said that there is a gap between India and Bangladesh, so how it could

00:55be resolved through?

00:58You see, as I was saying the relationship is, we need to take a longer term, long term

01:05perspective of the relationship, because I was working in the India desk like 22 years

01:12ago, when again also we had difficult relationship with India, relationship was quite tense at

01:21that time, then if you think of the post 1975 government that came, at that time relationship

01:30with India was quite tense.

01:34So I think we need to take a longer time, long term view and think that relationship,

01:42the gaps of understanding, the tense situation as we like to call it, this can only be resolved

01:51through greater dialogue, greater discussions, more open discussions, trying to understand

01:59each other's views, what is making Bangladesh behave as it is behaving now, what is making

02:07India react to Bangladesh's behavior as it is doing now.

02:13So it is only through better dialogue and discussion that we will be able to reduce

02:20this gap and I don't mean only discussion between the government agencies or the government

02:30sector, but also the general public, the other stakeholders, think tanks, academics, everybody

02:38should be having a healthy discussion, not accusing each other, but having a healthy

02:44constructive engagement.

02:48And how do you assess the current state of India-Bangladesh relations under the present

02:53government?

02:54As I said, the relationship has a very strong foundation, there are lot of commonalities

03:05where we need to work together, we have been working together, there are certain blips

03:13that happen in the history of relationships between countries.

03:21I would say whatever is happening now, if you look at the media, it seems as if the

03:27two countries are at the brink of something terrible, but I think if we look at it in

03:36a overall perspective of the relations, I think it will be possible to manage the relationship

03:49and it has not gone to unmanageable positions.

03:54Thank you very much.

03:55Thank you for inviting me.