The decks were cleared on Thursday for the much-anticipated visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in April during which she will have substantive talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on bilateral issues as well as the situation in the region.
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar met Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka this evening and renewed Modi’s invitation to her to visit India at an early date.
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According to the MEA, Jaishshankar discussed with Sheikh Hasina and her aides the preparatory aspects of her visit.
Sheikh Hasina’a Deputy Press Secretary M Nazrul Islam told the media in Dhaka that the twice-postponed visit would take place in the first half of April.
Jaishankar arrived in the Bangladesh capital this morning from Beijing on a two-day tour to finalise the details of Sheikh Hasina’s visit and brief her about the preparations.
Bangladesh is keen to ink the Teesta water sharing accord during Sheikh Hasina’s visit. However, New Delhi is not sure if the deal would fructify at this point of time, given the current hostility between the Modi government at the Centre and the Mamata Banerjee-led government in West Bengal. India has already made it clear to Bangladesh that the accord would be signed only after New Delhi had succeeded in building domestic consensus on it.
The MEA said Jaishankar briefed Sheikh Hasina on the recent developments in India-Bangladesh relations and the region. He also had separate meetings with senior officials of Bangladesh to take stock of decisions taken during the meetings of various bilateral mechanisms in the areas of security and border management, trade and commerce, power, energy, shipping and railways.
