PM's India trip in April
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will go on a state visit to India in April.
This was disclosed after visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar called on her at her parliament office yesterday evening.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, PM's Deputy Press Secretary Nazrul Islam said the reciprocal visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina would take place in the first half of April.
“We have got couple of dates in April from the Bangladesh side … the window is in the first week and third week of April. Our (Indian) Prime Minister's Office will have a view on this,” said an Indian diplomat on condition of anonymity.
“It was not a formal proposal, the Bangladesh side informally proposed the two probable schedules in April just to consider,” the diplomat told The Daily Star, adding, “Perhaps after checking with our PMO it will be finalised.”
Jaishankar, who landed in Dhaka from China yesterday afternoon after attending the first India-China Strategic Dialogue, had a nearly 30-minute meeting with Hasina.
After the meeting with the PM, the foreign secretaries of Bangladesh and India had a meeting at the Le Meridian hotel and discussed a wide range of issues, including Hasina's visit, and reviewed the implementation of the 60-point joint statement issued during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Dhaka visit on June 6-7, 2015.
Jaishankar will depart for New Delhi this morning.
Diplomatic sources said the Indian foreign secretary conveyed Modi's message to Hasina that New Delhi was ready to welcome her.
This time Hasina will be the guest of Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and will stay at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, said a diplomatic source, adding, “This is a unique honour for her since she will the first prime minister from Bangladesh to receive this honour.”
Even though Hasina visited India thrice in recent years -- to receive a degree, attend the funeral of President Pranab Mukharjee's wife, and attend Bimstec Outreach meeting in Goa on the sidelines of BRICS summit -- it will be her first state visit in her current tenure as prime minister.
Her last state visit to India was in January 2010.
"Through the visit, the bilateral ties between India and Bangladesh would be strengthened further," the Indian foreign secretary told the prime minister, reported UNB and BSS news agencies.
The visit would mainly focus on mutual interests and development initiatives alongside connectivity, Jaishankar said.
Referring to mutual solution to various problems between the two next-door neighbours, including Land Boundary and enclave problems, Hasina said, "We can solve any problem through discussions if we have good intention."
Hasina underscored the need for increasing connectivity between the countries as well strengthening cooperation in other sectors for the welfare of the people of the region.
When the Indian foreign secretary raised the issue of Saarc, which is now stalled, she said, "We shouldn't let it die."
About the BBIN (Bangladesh Bhutan India Nepal) Motor Vehicle Agreement, Hasina stressed the importance of making the initiative effective for the greater interest of the four nations.
"The BBIN initiative should be made effective and we should solve any problem regarding the initiative through discussion," she said.
The Indian foreign secretary said his country would take more development projects in Bangladesh as per Bangladesh's need.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam, PM's Principal Secretary Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury, Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque and Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Harsh Vardhan Shringla were present.
During his Dhaka visit in 2015, Indian Prime Minister Modi had extended an invitation to Hasina to visit India.
Earlier, Hasina's trip was deferred twice as both the countries reportedly failed to find a mutually agreeable date over the last couple of months.
Meanwhile, the High Commission of India in a press release yesterday said the Indian foreign secretary briefed the Bangladesh prime minister on recent developments in India-Bangladesh relations and the region.
He also discussed preparatory aspects of the proposed visit of Hasina.
Later, the two foreign secretaries reviewed the areas of bilateral cooperation. Both sides noted with appreciation that there has been excellent implementation of decisions made during Modi's last visit to Bangladesh.
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