Prime minister Sheikh Hasina will visit India next September to attend the 18th G20 heads of states and Governments summit, which is slated for 9 and 10 September in New Delhi.
In the visit, Sheikh Hasina will meet her Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, for the last time before the 12th parliamentary elections. The hosting India has only invited Bangladesh among South Asian nations in this summit.
The foreign ministry officials told Prothom Alo that many high-level meetings would be held this year between the two countries as a part of the prime minister’s tour to India.
Indian foreign secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra will visit Dhaka on a two-day trip in mid February to attend a foreign secretary-level meeting.
When asked, foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen said the preparation is underway to organise the foreign secretary-level meeting in mid February. Vinay Mohan Kwatra is supposed to visit Dhaka to join the meeting.
The officials said there is a plan to organise a preparatory inter-ministerial meeting this week before the foreign secretary level meeting in which the implementation and analysis of the prime minister’s decisions during her visit to India last year in September.
A senior official of the foreign ministry told Prothom Alo that it will be the first official meeting of Vinay Mohan Kwatra with his Bangladeshi counter Masud Bin Momen after taking the helm of Indian foreign secretary. That’s why the meeting is likely to be lengthy where several issues -- G20 summit, regional and international affairs -- will be discussed.
It is learnt from diplomats that Bangladesh-India Friendship Pipeline, which will supply diesel to Parbatipur in Bangladesh from Numaligarh refinery in Assam, is likely to be inaugurated during the meeting between the two prime ministers.
Apart from this, the meeting will review the progress of several projects, including the reformation of the dual gauge rail line between Tongi and Akhaura, the supply of rolling rail stock and the improvement of rail service through information technology.
Indian foreign secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra Vinay Kwatra will meet the prime minister Sheikh Hasina, the foreign minister Abdul Momen and state minister Md Shahriar Alam during his two-day visit in Dhaka.
The diplomatic sources said the government has planned to organise 15 to 20 meetings this year before the visit of Sheikh Hasina to India, including the ministerial level meeting of Joint River Commission (JRC).
India is indifferent to sitting at the ministerial level meetings of the JRC due to the uncertainty over the Teesta Water Sharing Agreement. However, Bangladesh hopes the ministerial level meeting will be held after a decade.
Besides, meetings at different levels, including home, naval, commerce, environment, border guard, will be held between these two neighbouring countries.