Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Mishri will visit Bangladesh on December 9. Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaswal confirmed this in a weekly briefing on Friday.
Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Mishri will lead the Foreign Office Consultation meeting. His main meeting will be with Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Mohammad Jasim Uddin. Mishri is also scheduled to pay a courtesy call on Foreign Affairs Advisor Towhid Hossain and Principal Advisor Dr. Muhammad Yunus. This is the first high-level meeting between the two countries since the fall of the Hasina government on August 5. Although Dr. Yunus’ government has held three technical committee meetings of the two countries in the last four months.
Relations between Bangladesh and India have reached a freezing point after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government in August due to a mass uprising by students and the public and her flight to India. Now, diplomatic relations between the two countries have also been strained over the minority issue.
The situation became more turbulent after the arrest of ISKCON leader Chinmoy Das. Protests were held in several places in India in protest of his arrest.
In addition, there was an attack on the Bangladesh Assistant High Commission in Agartala, Tripura, on Monday. Bangladesh has reacted strongly to this incident. Bangladesh did not stop at just reacting. A day after the incident, Dhaka summoned the Indian High Commissioner and expressed its anger.
The last consultation meeting of the Ministry of External Affairs was held in New Delhi in November 2023. It is reported that the resumption of Indian-funded development projects, simplification of visa procedures, increase in direct flights, and issues of trade and investment will be discussed in this meeting.
Hindustan Times says that Bangladesh is interested in taking forward this visit. Because it is seen as an opportunity to reduce tensions between the two countries and take steps to normalize relations.
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