Shiv Shankar Menon arrives in Dhaka
Indian National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon had a “comprehensive” discussion yesterday with top Bangladesh officials about the agenda of Indian prime minister's meeting with his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina on September 6.
Menon, who arrived in Dhaka at 11:00am yesterday, held talks with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Economic Affairs Adviser Mashiur Rahman and International Affairs Adviser Gowher Rizvi. They discussed about the latest position of the agreements to be signed during Manmohan's Dhaka visit on September 6-7, sources said.
Menon is scheduled to call on Sheikh Hasina this morning and hold a media interaction with a select group of editors at Sonargaon Hotel at 11:30am. He will leave Dhaka in the afternoon.
Bangladesh and India are expected to ink about a dozen deals in different areas, including water sharing, usages of seaports, connectivity, import of electricity and land boundary.
Officials said Menon's talks with the two Bangladesh advisers covered the entire range of bilateral issues, umbrella agreement on different areas and issues of the two countries to be discussed during the summit meeting.
Asked, a source told The Daily Star that the transit issue is also in the agenda and Menon discussed it with the two advisers. But the source would not elaborate it.
Although Gowher Rizvi recently said no agreement will be signed for transit during Singh's visit, Indian sources said transit is a core issue for India and it is very much on the agenda, the source added.
Diplomatic sources say Menon is in Dhaka to fine-tune the agreements and the agenda of the summit.
The two countries are giving final touches to around a dozen agreements and Memoranda of Understanding (MoU), which are expected to mark a turning point in bilateral relations between the two sides, they added.
Sources said the advisers also discussed programmes like Hasina and Manmohan's tete-a-tete for half an hour at the Prime Minister's Office.
After the one-to-one meeting, the two sides will hold official talks at 5:35pm followed by signing of the agreements, MoUs and media statement.
Singh will arrive in Dhaka on September 6 noon and leave the next evening.
His would be the first full-fledged visit since Indira Gandhi visited Bangladesh in 1970s.
After Indira's visit, Indian prime ministers Rajiv Gandhi, Chanderashekhar, PV Narasimha Rao, Inder Kumar Gujral and Manmohan Singh came to Bangladesh only to attend Saarc summits, India-Bangladesh-Pakistan business summit or to visit flood and cyclone-ravaged areas. Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Bangladesh for a few hours to launch the Dhaka-Kolkata bus service in July 1999.
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