B’desh wants to be India's number one friend: Ali

New Delhi: With bilateral cooperation extending to new areas, Bangladesh on Saturday said it wants to become India's "number one" friend and invited Indian companies to set up special economic zones and invest in sectors like automobile, power and manufacturing.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, hours after chairing the third Joint Consultative Commission (JCC) meeting here with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, said his government would offer land to Indian companies across the country to set up Special Economic Zones.

Referring to his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday, Ali told the media that he was touched the way Modi hailed the contribution of 'Bangabandhu' Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his daughter and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to Bangladesh. “We are grateful that he spoke in those endearing terms," he said. Ali said the relationship between the two countries was "forged in the blood that we shed together during the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war." " We are expanding our cooperation in diverse areas. Bangladesh wants to be India's number one friend," he told reporters.

In the JCC, both Swaraj and Ali reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral relations and talked about strategic areas of trade and investment, security, connectivity, border management, water, power, shipping, renewable energy and development cooperation among others. India has offered Bangladesh expertise in civil nuclear sector and outer space also.