Prime minister going to Delhi for bilateral visit
The prime minister is scheduled to visit Delhi on 21 June. It would be her second visit to Delhi this month.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina is now going on a bilateral visit to India. She is scheduled to visit Delhi on 21 June. It would be her visiting Delhi for the second time this month. A top level source of the government confirmed this news to Prothom Alo on Thursday evening.
According to diplomatic sources, the duration of the visit of prime minister Sheikh Hasina this time could be three days. Preparations are going on for a top level meeting between prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on 22 June during this visit.
The matter of Sheikh Hasina going on her first bilateral visit to Delhi after assuming office as prime minister for the fourth consecutive term was finalised in the political ground of the two countries. Though, China has been trying to take prime minister Sheikh Hasina to Beijing since the second half of last year.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina went to Delhi on 8 June to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi for the third consecutive time.
After the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi, the two leaders had a brief meeting between them and both the leaders invited each other to visit their respective countries.
Speculations had been created regarding the fact if prime minister Sheikh Hasina would go on a bilateral visit to Delhi again within a short period or not. Finally, confirming the speculations prime minister Sheikh Hasina is going on a bilateral visit to Delhi as planned.
There has been a huge shift in the diplomatic ties between Bangladesh and India in the last 15 years, after Awami League led by Sheikh Hasina assumed power in 2009. Though there has been extensive development in different sectors including connectivity, power and trade, some unresolved issues are still there.
India’s priority is security and Bangladesh has ensured that. Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s priority is water but, the complications centering distribution of the water of Teesta and other rivers have not been cleared out yet.
Apart from this, there are complications about Bangladeshis being killed at the hands of Indian Border Security Force and regarding the non-tariff barriers in some sectors of trade as well.
In terms of connectivity, the bilateral sub-regional cooperation is now higher than ever time. Starting from the potential for connectivity cooperation between Bangladesh, India and Japan centering Matarbari, Bangladesh has also imported electricity from Nepal via India.