The Prime Minister of Bangladesh is again ‘going to Delhi’ on a bilateral visit

June 14, 2024 8:50 am

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stepped on the soil of Delhi as the first head of government at the swearing-in ceremony of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. After the formation of the new government in the country under the leadership of Modi, Sheikh Hasina will again become the first head of government to visit India on an official bilateral visit.

Diplomatic sources have confirmed that preparations for this visit have been started from both sides right after Eid. The visit is expected to last for three days. For several days, speculations were going on in the diplomatic circles.

However, several high-level sources in the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed this visit to Time News on Friday (June 14) morning.

According to the latest information, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will visit New Delhi from Dhaka on June 20 and the related offices of the PMO and Ministry of External Affairs are preparing the agenda, fixing the date of her return to Dhaka on June 22.

According to sources, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will be busy with various state programs in New Delhi on June 21 and 22. Naturally, there are a bunch of issues on the agenda during the Dhaka-Delhi visit of the heads of government of both Bangladesh and India. This time too, besides the bilateral meeting, the country’s political leadership, some ministers of the new government and the business community may seek time to meet the Prime Minister separately, according to a senior official of the state who does not want to be named.

On the principle of ‘Neighbors First’, the visit of two high-level leaders in the same month is seen as historic and unprecedented.

Sources claim that this three-day visit is being considered very seriously from various aspects. Because Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra, who came from Delhi during the Lok Sabha elections in India last May, invited Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for a bilateral visit. Chinese President Xi Jinping has extended an invitation to Sheikh Hasina to visit Beijing long ago.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister visited India on June 8-10 on the occasion of Modi’s swearing-in ceremony. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sheikh Hasina held a private meeting on the sidelines of politics. Apart from exchanging pleasantries among themselves, they invited each other to visit at convenient times. Although at that time the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Hasan Mahmood told reporters in Delhi in response to a question that Bangladesh will soon hold a formal bilateral meeting with the new government of India. However, Dr. could not tell the date. laugh

In the midst of these diplomatic activities, rumors of Narendra Modi’s visit to Dhaka spread in the Indian media on June 12 in the last week of this month. But that buzz didn’t last more than a day. Finally, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is going to Delhi to hold a bilateral meeting with the Modi government.

What exactly is going to be discussed in this visit has not been finalized yet. Officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs say that when the two Prime Ministers sit together in a meeting, naturally some unresolved issues have happened in the past, this time may not be an exception. Apart from this, with the Modi-Hasina government working together over the past decade, the relationship between the two countries is now at an “unprecedented height”. In this context, multi-dimensional issues should also be given importance in this meeting, especially in the discussion of future joint planning issues.

After Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina came to power under the leadership of Bangladesh Awami League, relations between Bangladesh and India have undergone major changes in the past years. Although there has been a lot of progress in connectivity, cross border power trade, trade etc., some outstanding issues like Teesta water sharing issue have not been resolved yet.

India’s priority is security, which Bangladesh has proved in the test of time. On the other hand, the demand of the people of Bangladesh is to establish equality in the water distribution of Teesta and other common rivers. Apart from this, some aspects of border killing and trade are still to be resolved.

Sub-regional cooperation in terms of connectivity is now greater than ever before. From the new possibilities of cooperation in the future to the issue of India’s final consent in importing Nepal and Bhutan’s hydropower to Bangladesh, the issue of India’s final consent may dominate the Hasina-Modi meeting.