Hasina flies to India Jan 10
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will leave for India on the night of January 10 to hold crucial summit talks with her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on January 11.
Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, announcing the PM's date of departure, told reporters yesterday at the foreign ministry that details of the programs are being worked out.
The upcoming Hasina-Manmohan formal talks are seen significant in redefining the Bangladesh-India bilateral relations in the changed political perspectives both in Dhaka and Delhi.
Several accords are likely to be signed during the visit to allow transportation of India's Over Dimensional Consignments for installing a power plant in Tripura,
Strengthen Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institute to remove hassle of certification of Bangladeshi export goods and facilitating Bangladesh-Nepal and Bangladesh-Bhutan transit through India.
As Bangladesh focuses on the sharing of the Teesta River waters during the visit, the water resources secretary-level talks will be held here on January 3 to do the spadework.
Foreign Secretary Mijarul Quayes said that, if possible, the minister-level Joint Rivers Commission meeting would be arranged before the PM's visit in a bid to reach an agreement on the sharing of the Teesta flows.
Dipu Moni, who just returned from Mauritius, said apart from a few involved in criminal activities, all the Bangladeshi male and female workers will continue with their jobs mainly in apparel sector of the island-state.
There are 12,000 workers, including 6,000 female, now employed in Mauritius. Earlier, the Mauritius government had decided to deport 6,000 male workers for breaking laws of the land by some of the males.
At the recently held Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Port of Spain, the Mauritius prime minister had assured the Bangladesh premier of reconsidering their decision.
During Dipu Moni's urgent diplomatic mission, the authorities of Mauritius conveyed their decision of not deporting the 6,000 workers.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed during her visit with an understanding that from now on, Bangladeshi workers will be sent to Mauritius through discussions between the two governments to avoid forgery with passports and other deceptions by dishonest recruiting agents.
In reply to a question, the foreign minister said Bangladesh's Honorary Consul has been removed following several complaints and a new one will be appointed soon.
The foreign secretary told the reporters that Bangladesh ambassador to Iraq will fly to Baghdad on December 29 as the Bangladesh mission will be reopened in the green zone of the Iraqi capital.
On the outcome of the much-orchestrated Copenhagen climate conference, Dipu Moni, who attended the conference along with the PM, said what Bangladesh sought to tackle the climate change have been incorporated in the accord.
She said Bangladesh, as a most vulnerable country was the focal point at the global conference.
World leaders recognised the country's needs of financial assistance and technology transfer to deal with adaptation and mitigation and they also praised Dhaka strategy and action plan on climate change, she added.
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