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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.