External affairs minister S Jaishankar will visit Dhaka on 4 March to do the groundwork for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to Bangladesh towards the end of the month, official sources said today.
During his visit, Jaishankar will finalise with his Bangladeshi counterpart A K Abdul Momen the agenda for talks between Modi and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
It is learnt that among other events, Modi will take part in a function on 26 March to mark the birth centenary of Bangladesh’s Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the golden jubilee of the country’s independence and 50 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Bangladesh.
A number of key accords are expected to be signed between the two countries during Modi’s visit, including those on energy and communication.
Relations between India and Bangladesh have witnessed an unprecedented upswing over the last few years.
India has sent nearly two million doses of the Covishield vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII) to Bangladesh as a gift. Commercial consignments of the vaccine were also sent later.
Bangladesh has been nudging India to quickly settle the Teesta water-sharing issue in the larger interest of the bilateral relations. However, the Modi government has clearly told Dhaka that the water-sharing deal could only be signed once there was domestic political consensus over it in India. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has still not given her approval to the proposed deal.