November 20, 2024
DHAKA – Bangladesh and India’s first high-level official meeting since the fall of the Awami League government is scheduled for December in Dhaka.
According to a foreign ministry official, Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Jashim Uddin and Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri will lead the Foreign Office Consultation.
The foreign ministry is preparing the necessary agenda for the meeting and will hold an inter-ministerial preparatory meeting regarding this at the foreign ministry today, he told this correspondent.
The meeting will discuss the existing agreements and memoranda of understanding and the developments of the decisions taken in the earlier meetings.
Indo-Bangla relations have been strained following the ouster of the Awami League government and the sheltering of the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in India.
Bangladesh Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus in his address to the nation on November 17, said Dhaka will request New Delhi for Hasina’s extradition.
Since the fall of the Awami League government, the Indian High Commission has limited the visas being issued to Bangladeshi tourists.
Besides, many of the projects under the Indian Line of Credit have also remained halted as the Indian contractors have not yet returned to Bangladesh for security concerns.
Meanwhile, Foreign Adviser Touhid Hossain earlier told the media that Dhaka will review the agreements and MoUs signed with New Delhi over the last few years.
Indian scholar Prof Sreeradha Datta, who specialises in South Asian affairs, earlier told The Daily Star that a high-level meeting between the two countries should be held at the earliest to ease relations.
Bangladesh Foreign Adviser Touhid Hossain and Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in late September.
However, Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting there could not be held as their stay in New York then did not overlap.