Indian foreign secretary visits Bangladesh
Indian foreign secretary Harsh Shringla flew to Dhaka on Tuesday for a previously unannounced visit, during which he is expected to convey a special message from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina, people familiar with the developments said.
This is Shringla’s first trip abroad since the Covid-19 outbreak. It is also a senior Indian official’s the first visit to Bangladesh since travel restrictions were imposed due to the pandemic.
Shringla, who earlier served as the Indian envoy in Dhaka, is carrying a message from Modi for Hasina, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity. He is also expected to meet foreign minister AK Abdul Momen and foreign secretary Masud bin Momen.
A brief statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs after Shringla arrived in Dhaka said the foreign secretary was on a visit to Bangladesh from August 18-19 to “discuss and take forward cooperation on matters of mutual interest”.
Hasina visited India last October, while Modi’s planned visit to Bangladesh in March to participate in events marking the birth centenary of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was called off due to the pandemic. The two leaders have spoken on the phone several times this year, most recently in May.
Ties between the two countries have been under some strain since last year, when Bangladeshi leaders were irked by comments from BJP leaders about deporting illegal migrants from Assam. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the implementation of the National Register of Citizens also affected ties, and Hasina had questioned the need for CAA during an interview earlier this year.
India has taken several steps in recent weeks to improve connectivity with Bangladesh, including handing over 10 railway locomotives last month. This was done days after the first container train made its way from India to Bangladesh and the first shipment of goods was sent from Kolkata to Tripura via Chattogram port.
After taking over as foreign secretary in January, Shringla visited Dhaka in March. Shringla had met Prime Minister Hasina during his last visit to Bangladesh.
This is Shringla’s first trip abroad since the Covid-19 outbreak. It is also a senior Indian official’s the first visit to Bangladesh since travel restrictions were imposed due to the pandemic.
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India plans to sell cotton to Bangladesh to trim record reserves
India plans to sell cotton to Bangladesh to trim its bulging reserves following a slump in demand from textile mills in the top grower.
State-owned Cotton Corp. of India may export 1.5 million to 2 million bales of the fiber to the neighboring nation to help reduce India’s record surplus before the new crop begins arriving in October, said Pradeep Kumar Agarwal, chairman of the company. It generally sells cotton to local mills and traders at market prices, after buying from farmers at government-set minimum rates.
Higher sales from India may potentially increase reserves in top exporters like the US and Brazil and further lower global prices that have fallen about 8% this year as the coronavirus erodes demand for clothing. Global cotton consumption is set to drop about 15% from a year earlier to 22.29 million tons in 2019-20, according to the USDA estimates.
Export prices will be decided by the two governments using the Cotlook index, Agarwal said. Industry researcher Cotlook Ltd.’s benchmark is a daily average of the five cheapest cash prices in the world.
“In any case, I can assure that it won’t be lower than domestic prices,” which have fallen about 20% since the outbreak of the coronavirus, he said.
Huge Stockpiles
Cotton Corp. plans to sell 500,000 bales to 700,000 bales of 170 kilograms each to Trading Corp. of Bangladesh in the marketing year ending on Sept. 30. The rest of the quantity will be shipped in 2020-21, Agarwal said in a phone interview. Bangladesh vies with China as the world’s biggest buyer of cotton.
India is likely to have a record closing stockpile of 10.25 million bales by Sept. 30, according to the Cotton Association of India, as domestic consumption may drop more than 20% from a year earlier to 25 million bales in 2019-20, it said.
Cotton Corp. bought 10.5 million bales this year, the highest-ever procurement. It included 2 million bales purchased during a nationwide lockdown to prevent distress selling by local growers, Agarwal said. The company is carrying about 8.4 million bales at present and its ending reserves may not exceed 3 million bales on Sept. 30, he said.
Cotton Corp. spent about 5,500 rupees ($74) per 100 kilograms to purchase cotton from farmers, compared with the market rate of 4,800 rupees to 5,000 rupees, he said. Indian farmers have planted cotton in 12.55 million hectares (31 million acres) as of Aug. 14, compared with 12.16 million hectares a year earlier, according to the farm ministry. The crop will be harvested from October.
Higher sales from India may potentially increase reserves in top exporters like the US and Brazil and further lower global prices that have fallen about 8% this year as the coronavirus erodes demand for clothing.
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