We have requested India to provide a list of illegal Bangladeshis: Foreign Minister Abdul Momen

The National Register of Citizens (NRC)  in Assam is a key project for the Narendra Modi government in India.

But a seamless implementation of the NRC will no doubt require co-operation from India's eastern neighbour Bangladesh.

And on this front, there is some good news. Bangladesh's foreign minister Abdul Momen has asked India to hand over a list of all Bangladeshi nationals who are presently living illegally in India.

The minister said that his country would be willing to take them back after such a list is provided.

These are testing times for India-Bangladesh ties.

While defending the new citizenship law in parliament, home minister Amit Shah claimed that minorities were being persecuted in Bangladesh.

Momen termed Shah's comments as untrue and a day later cancelled his visit to India.

Diplomatic channels indicate that Bangladesh is a bit uneasy over the situation in India after the passage of the new citizenship law. But the foreign minister dismissed all such reports.

He blamed it all on a busy schedule. Abdul Momen also said that India was not pushing migrants into Bangladesh. And that this was the handiwork of middlemen working at the border.

But Momen's statement of support came with a subtle warning.

He made it clear that if anyone other than a Bangladeshi national ended up at their border, they would send them back without hesitation.

On both the NRC and the new citizenship bill, Bangladesh has maintained that they are India's internal policies.

But the truth is Dhaka was concerned about the rollout of the scheme.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina also raised the issue with PM Modi during their meeting in new york in September.