Time Digital Report: Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen is likely to visit India on November 23 or 24 to hold a Foreign Office Consultation (FOC), a regular bilateral meeting, with his Indian counterpart Vinay Kwatra.
"This is a regular meeting that has been rescheduled. The two sides will discuss all aspects of our bilateral relations," a diplomatic source in Delhi told The Daily Star this evening.
This is the second foreign secretary-level meeting between the two countries this year, with the first one being held in February in Dhaka.
A summit-level meeting between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi was also held on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in late October this year.
The FOC next week is being held at a time when the Election Commission has already declared the schedule for the national election, but the BNP is opposing it with programmes like blockades.
The US, which has been calling for free and fair elections for long, has recently written letters to the Awami League, BNP, and Jatiya Party for dialogue. The ruling party said there is no scope for dialogue at this moment.
The elections this year are also frequently an issue of discussion by foreign officials both in Dhaka and other capitals.
Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra, after the 2+2 meeting with the US in New Delhi on November 10, said elections in Bangladesh are internal affairs and that as a close friend, India wants a stable, democratic and progressive nation.
Asked if the meeting has any political significance of the foreign secretary level meeting this time, sources in Dhaka and Delhi said the meeting of such level discusses purely bilateral diplomatic issues.
Bangladesh and India's relations have improved to a great extent over the last one-and-a-half decades in terms of connectivity, energy cooperation, trade, etc. The most-discussed Teesta water-sharing treaty has yet to be signed.
"All these issues will be discussed in the meeting," a foreign ministry official said.
