India yesterday said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Dhaka “has achieved concrete progress in our efforts to develop and strengthen close and friendly relations with Bangladesh.

“The prime minister's visit has enabled us to put across our vision of an equal and mutually beneficial relationship with Bangladesh to the widest cross-section of its people. It is essential for us to develop and nurture a comprehensive partnership with that country”, Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna told the Lok Sabha in a suo motu statement, a day after Singh returned here from a two-day Bangladesh visit.

“Our relations with Bangladesh are important to us for many reasons.

Bangladesh is a country that is proud of its unique and rich cultural heritage. A strong, stable, and prosperous Bangladesh is in our interest It has embarked upon the path of multiparty democracy, based on the ideals of its liberation war, moderation, and tolerance. It is a respected member of the Islamic world. It has witnessed a healthy growth rate in the last few years”, Krishna said.

He said India was “committed to building a strong partnership with Bangladesh, including assistance in developmental efforts and enhanced bilateral cooperation to our mutual benefit".

Krishna said India was keen to arrive at “fair and equitable arrangements" with Bangladesh for sharing of the waters of common rivers. We have experience of this before, as in

the Ganges Water Treaty of 1996. We, however, recognise that water is a sensitive issueinboth countries. The government will work towards arriving at solutions that are acceptable to all concerned”.

Pointing out that effective management ofIndo-Bangladesh borders is the first essential step to creating a defined and peaceful boundary that will provide a stable and tranquil environment for cross-border cooperation with Bangladesh, he said the Protocol to the 1974 Land Boundary Agreement, signed September 6, by the two countries “paves the way for a settlement of the long-pending land boundary issues".

“India and Bangladesh have now put in place mechanisms, including the recently concluded coordinated border management plan, which we

hope will greatly reduce the scope for incidents on the border and strengthen mutual trust and goodwill among the border guarding forces and people living in the border areas. We hope that problems arising from illegal border crossings and related difficulties will be better addressed by both sides”.

“Our efforts to resolve the border issues with Bangladesh reflect our desire to make our borders with the neighbours the borders of peace, stability, and amity”, he said.

The Indian minister said the Framework Agreement on Cooperation for Development with Bangladesh “contains new ideas for bilateral and sub-regional cooperation which will institutionalise the rapidly growing ties between the two countries”.