India’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Dinesh Trivedi, held a courtesy meeting with Bangladesh’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir on Tuesday. Amid efforts to schedule a November visit for Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman to India, the two countries have stepped up engagements at the diplomatic level.
“High Commissioner conveyed congratulations on his assumption of charge as the State Minister. Because of niggling issues in the relationship, while Tarique Rahman has an invitation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit India for bilateral talks, the visit has not happened.
The discussion focussed on continued cooperation between the two neighbouring countries for mutually beneficial outcomes for the peoples of India and Bangladesh,” the Indian High Commission in Dhaka said in a statement.
Rahman also emphasised further expansion of bilateral trade, investment and development cooperation with China as its outgoing Ambassador Yao Wen paid a farewell call on him at his office on Monday. Others say that given the strained ties during the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus, both India and Bangladesh are working towards ensuring the relationship is back on track before a high-profile bilateral visit. In his first foreign visit after assuming the office of Prime Minister, Rahman visited Malaysia and China.
Some foreign policy analysts have said these developments indicate that the current dispensation in Bangladesh is not inclined towards a bilateral meeting with India but is focused on other countries.
the proposed bilateral meeting in New Delhi is more likely to happen in November after the country’s newly appointed High Commissioner to India, Asad Alam Siam, settles into the role While the Bangladesh Prime Minister is scheduled to visit a few countries beginning next month. Siam is expected to take charge next month. Rahman was initially slated to visit India in mid-August with Dhaka and New Delhi discussing the specific dates, but that did not work out after Bangladesh took offence to former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addressing the media at an event organised by the Foreign Correspondents Club of South Asia in New Delhi. Rahman’s aides advised him not to travel to India While India clarified that it had nothing to do with the event and did not endorse the comments made.
