Dhaka: India and Bangladesh tonight signed a long-term Comprehensive Framework Agreement on Cooperation and Development that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described as a "contemporary blueprint" encompassing all forms and sectors of cooperation ranging from security, trade, transit and river water-sharing.
The broad sweep of the agreement, signed by Singh and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina at the end of their restricted and delegation-level talks here, sets out the vision, principles, and modalities of bilateral relationship, provides a structure and identify priorities of the ties.
Singh described the agreement as a "contemporary blueprint" encompassing all forms and sectors of cooperation ranging from security, trade, transit and river water-sharing.
In a late night briefing, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said that the framework agreement was a "planning for the future" of the relation between the two countries.
Bangladesh and India had a 25-year Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Peace signed on March 19, 1972. The two governments, however, declined to renegotiate or renew the treaty when it approached expiry in 1997.
The draft proposal for the the framework agreement, which will basically lay the foundation and broad principles of the relationship between the two countries, was given by Bangladesh.
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