(UNB),Dhaka

Ministers, economists, diplomats, business leaders and senior officials from Bangladesh and India will get together here on Friday to assess and measure how far India and Bangladesh have reached in terms of verifiable progress made so far.

The seventh round of India-Bangladesh Friendship Dialogue with the theme ‘Ground Rules of a New Paradigm’ will bring them all under the same roof this time.

Friends of Bangladesh in collaboration with Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh and India Foundation (Delhi) will host the two-day dialogue at Pan Pacific Hotel Sonargaon.

Establishing a dynamic security and confidence architecture for South Asia-encompassing border management, preventing trans-national crimes and trade in narcotic and psychotropic substances, establishing intense connectivity networks through infrastructure development-reconnecting the ancient production-trade-value chains and establishing a comprehensive water and energy security model for South Asia are the three broad areas to be brought under assessment.

Connectivity and integrated multimodal communication-with special emphasis on utilising inland waterways, regional and continental highways, railway networks, sea ports and costal shipping, growing menace of radicalisation and evolution of a regional de-radicalisation strategy, investment, production, manufacturing and service sector complementarily between the two countries will also be assessed and discussed.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali will attend the inaugural session of the event as the chief guest.

Indian Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu, State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam, Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Harsha Bardhan Singla, Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque, National Spokesperson BJP and Director, India Foundation MJ Akbar, MP, Vice President of Friends of Bangladesh (India Chapter) Satyam Roychowdhury and coordinator of Friends of Bangladesh ASM Shamsul Arefin will also speak at various sessions of the two-day dialogue, said an official.

The ‘hugely successful’ sixth round of the dialogue–held in New Delhi on May 22-23 titled “Bangladesh-India Relations: Bilateralism and beyond” witnessed a shared optimism with the new Indian government coming with a historic mandate of trust and political will to solve all bilateral issues, according to a document obtained by UNB.

Passing of the Land Boundary Agreement between the two countries after 44 years was a momentous breakthrough in this regard.

The sixth round of the dialogue made an attempt to define the actors, trends, the peripherals and the optics which shape the economic interaction between the two countries.

The Delhi declaration adopted at the conclusion of the two-day meet summarised that “the dialogue has attempted to put together a vision document which would define the core economic focus for greater interaction between the two countries rights.