Foreign Secretary Kwatra arrives in Bangladesh
Foreign Secretary Kwatra arrives in Bangladesh
Dhaka, May 8 (PTI) Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra arrived here on Wednesday as part of high-level exchanges between the two countries to review bilateral ties and prepare the grounds for a likely visit to India by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Kwatra arrived in Dhaka by a special flight in the evening for a short trip during which he will hold talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart Masud Bin Momen on Thursday on the entire gamut of bilateral relations and ways to further expand the ties, a Bangladesh foreign ministry spokesman said.
He will call on Prime Minister Hasina on Thursday and is likely to extend her an invitation from the Indian Prime Minister for a visit to New Delhi after the general elections, the foreign ministry officials said.
The two premiers met during the New Delhi G-20 Leaders Summit in September 2023, when Hasina visited India.
“There are discussions regarding the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Hasina to India within the next couple of months. The preparatory issues may also come up for discussion during Indian FS’s engagements in Dhaka,” the Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported, citing a diplomatic source.
Citing diplomatic sources, the paper said that Prime Minister Hasina’s visit to India is planned for early July, after the conclusion of the general elections.
“The Prime Minister’s (Hasina) India visit will definitely take place. However, it will take place after the election in India,” Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister recently said.
Kwatra was expected to visit Dhaka in April but the tour was deferred by a month perhaps due to his internal engagements ahead of the general elections in India. No official announcement, however, was made about his proposed Dhaka tour last month.
He will also meet Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud, who visited India in February. It was his first bilateral foreign trip after Hasina came to power for a fifth term after a landslide victory in the parliamentary elections in January.
During his trip, Mahmud held comprehensive talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar covering all key aspects of the bilateral ties, especially in areas of cross-border connectivity, defence and security, power, energy, water resources and people-to-people exchanges.
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval visited Dhaka in February in the first high-level visit from India after Hasina retained power.