News Desk:
External affairs minister S Jaishankar will travel to Bangladesh capital Dhaka on Thursday, April 28, to prepare the ground for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s long-pending visit to India.
External affairs minister S Jaishankar will make a day-long visit to Dhaka on April 28 to prepare the grounds for a long-pending trip to India by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
Jaishankar’s visit will also be an opportunity for the two sides to review several high-profile projects being implemented as part of the Indian side’s development cooperation, the people cited above said.
A visit to India by Hasina has been on the cards for several months, especially after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Dhaka in March last year to participate in celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh’s independence. It is now expected she will travel to New Delhi sometime soon after the month of Ramzan or in the second half of the year.
Jaishankar’s meetings in Dhaka are expected to pave the way for the Bangladeshi leader’s visit. In addition to holding talks with foreign minister AK Abdul Momen, Jaishankar is also expected to meet Hasina while in Dhaka.
Bangladesh foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen visited India in February for wide-ranging talks and to open a new deputy high commission in Chennai. This was Bangladesh’s fifth such post in the country and the first in southern India. Bangladesh earlier had assistant and deputy high commissions in Agartala, Guwahati, Kolkata and Mumbai.
Earlier, it was anticipated that Masud Bin Momen’s visit would be followed by a trip by foreign minister Momen. However, he is now expected to visit India at a later stage.
Bangladesh has been one of the main beneficiaries of India’s “Neighbourhood First” policy, especially in terms of connectivity and development projects.
The two sides have revived several cross-border railway links that were snapped by the 1965 war with Pakistan and done extensive work on enhancing the use of cross-border rivers for transporting goods to and from India’s northeastern states.
SK
