PM Hasina flies to India on four-day visit

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday morning left Dhaka for New Delhi on a four-day state visit at the invitation of her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, reports news agency UNB.

The visit is seen as significant amid the Ukraine crisis, global economic downturn and ongoing Covid-19 pandemic as the two South Asian neighbors seek enhanced cooperation to overcome the challenges.

A VVIP chartered flight of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines carrying the prime minister and her entourage members departed the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 10:10am.

The flight is scheduled to land at the Palam Airport, New Delhi at 12:00pm (Bangladesh time). The Bangladesh prime minister will be received by India’s state minister for railways and textiles, Darshana Vikram Jardosh, and Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Muhammad Imran.

PM Hasina will be formally received by her Indian counterpart on 6 September, while a ceremonial guard of honour will be accorded to her at the Rastrapati Bhabhan.

During her visit, Hasina is scheduled to hold bilateral talks and a one-to-one meeting with Modi at the Hyderabad House on Tuesday.

Issues related to security cooperation, investment, enhanced trade relations, power and energy sector cooperation, water sharing of common rivers, water resources management, border management, combating drug smuggling and human trafficking will get priority during the talks between PM Hasina and Narendra Modi at the Hyderabad House.

After the bilateral talks, Bangladesh and India are likely to sign seven agreements and MoUs on water management, railway, science and technology; and information and broadcasting.

The Bangladesh PM is also scheduled to attend a lunch to be hosted by her Indian counterpart.

Sheikh Hasina will also meet Indian president Droupadi Murmu and Indian vice president Jagdeep Dhankhar separately on the same day.

Besides, Indian external affairs minister S Jaishankar, Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani will separately meet the Bangladesh prime minister on 5 September, while minister for development of North Eastern Region of India G. Kishan Reddy and Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi will have separate meetings with her on 7 September.

The prime minister is scheduled to visit Nizamuddin Aulia Dargah in Delhi on 5 September, Khwaja Gharib Nawaz Dargah Sharif and Ajmer (Ajmer Sharif Dargah) in Rajasthan on 8 September.

Sheikh Hasina, accompanied by representatives from business bodies of Bangladesh, will attend Bangladesh-India Business Forum on 7 September.

On the same day, she will award the Mujib Scholarship, an initiative of the Bangladesh government, to the descendants of 200 Indian Armed Forces personnel who were martyred and critically injured during the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971.

Hasina is visiting India after three years since she last visited in 2019 before the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic.

The prime minister leads a high-level delegation which includes several ministers, advisers, state ministers, secretaries and senior officials.

Liberation war affairs minister AKM Mozammel Huq, foreign minister AK Abdul Momen, commerce minister Tipu Munshi, railways minister Md. Nurul Islam Sujan, PM’s economic affairs adviser Mashiur Rahman, PM’s private industry and investment adviser Salman F Rahman, state minister for foreign affairs Md Shahriar Alam, state minister for power, energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid and state minister for water resources Zaheed Farooque are among the delegation members.