Dhaka, Delhi to review pledges

Dhaka and New Delhi will host two ministerial-level exchange visits in May to review the agreements made during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to India in January 2010 and her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh's trip here in September last year.
Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will arrive in Dhaka on a two-day visit on May 5 which will be immediately followed by Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni's two-day official visit to India on May 6 or early on May 7.
Foreign ministry officials said the visits are intended to expedite implementation of the agreements and commitments made by the two sides and untangle the complications in the relationship between Bangladesh and India.
All pending issues, including sharing of the Teesta water, exchange of enclaves and 6.5-kilometre un-demarcated border, will be discussed during the visits, said the officials.
Pranab Mukherjee, who will fly to Dhaka attending the ADB meeting in Manila, will call on Sheikh Hasina, his counterpart AMA Muhith, and Dipu Moni. On May 6, he is scheduled to join the closing ceremony of the year-long celebration of Rabindranath Tagore's 150th birth anniversary here.
Dipu Moni during her India visit will attend the closing ceremony in New Delhi at 6:30pm on May 7 and hold extensive meetings with her Indian counterpart SM Krishna.
Diplomatic sources said Pranab will convey to Bangladesh that India is hopeful of overcoming complexities that came in the way of implementing two key decisions -- the Teesta water sharing agreement and ratification of the deal on exchanging adversely possessed lands and enclaves, and land boundary demarcation.
Meanwhile, our New Delhi correspondent yesterday reported that after Pranab and Dipu Moni's visits, Speaker of Indian Parliament Meira Kumar is expected to come to Dhaka on a five-day visit from May 23 on an invitation from her Bangladeshi counterpart Abdul Hamid.
Indian officials are billing this visit as a cultural diplomacy initiative.
Kumar, a former foreign service officer, will attend the joint inauguration of the commemorative function on Bangladesh's national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam.