New Delhi
4 July 2011External affairs minister SM Krishna will travel to Dhaka on Wednesday as a prelude to Prime Minister Singh's visit. Mr Krishna will call on President Zillur Rahman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, hold talks with foreign minister Dipu Moni and finance minister AMA Muhith, and meet with leader of opposition Khaleda Zia.
Although there was no official word either from New Delhi or Dhaka, home minister P Chidambaram was likely to visit Bangladesh in the coming weeks as both sides were discussing a possible agreement on issues such as border demarcation and adversely possessed enclaves.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi was scheduled to attend a conference in Dhaka on July 25.
India and Bangladesh share a 4,095-kilometre-long border but only a small portion of it is left to be demarcated. Bangladesh holds 226.81 acres of Indian land as adverse possession while 551.8 acres of Bangladesh land is in the adverse possession of India.
Exchange of enclaves was under discussion, too. India has 92 enclaves of Bangladesh while 110 of its own are in Bangladesh.
The two countries were also negotiating an agreement on sharing the Teesta river waters.
Announcing Mr Singh's visit to Dhaka, the Bangladesh government said Monday that prime ministers Sheikh Hasina and Manmohan Singh were expected to discuss cooperation in trade, connectivity, water resources management, power, land boundary demarcation, border management, security, culture, education, and people-to-people contact, among others.
"The two prime ministers will take stock of the implementation of the decisions taken during the visit of [Ms Hasina] to India in January 2010 and will provide guidance for further widening and deepening of the excellent relations between the two countries," it said in a statement, which was made available here by the Bangladesh high commission.
The official announcement of Mr Singh's visit to Dhaka came a few days after he was reported as saying that at least 25 per cent of the population of Bangladesh swears by the Jamiat-ul-Islami and "they are very anti-Indian, and they are in the clutches, many times, of the ISI." According to the prime minister's office, his remarks were intended to be off the record but they figured in the official transcript released after Mr Singh's interaction with some editors. The remarks were later deleted from the official transcript.
Exchange of enclaves was under discussion, too. India has 92 enclaves of Bangladesh while 110 of its own are in Bangladesh.
The two countries were also negotiating an agreement on sharing the Teesta river waters.
Announcing Mr Singh's visit to Dhaka, the Bangladesh government said Monday that prime ministers Sheikh Hasina and Manmohan Singh were expected to discuss cooperation in trade, connectivity, water resources management, power, land boundary demarcation, border management, security, culture, education, and people-to-people contact, among others.
"The two prime ministers will take stock of the implementation of the decisions taken during the visit of [Ms Hasina] to India in January 2010 and will provide guidance for further widening and deepening of the excellent relations between the two countries," it said in a statement, which was made available here by the Bangladesh high commission.
The official announcement of Mr Singh's visit to Dhaka came a few days after he was reported as saying that at least 25 per cent of the population of Bangladesh swears by the Jamiat-ul-Islami and "they are very anti-Indian, and they are in the clutches, many times, of the ISI." According to the prime minister's office, his remarks were intended to be off the record but they figured in the official transcript released after Mr Singh's interaction with some editors. The remarks were later deleted from the official transcript.
// Manmohan calls Hasina //
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke with his Bangladesh
counterpart, Sheikh Hasina Wajed, on Monday.
[He] called the prime minister of Bangladesh [to] say how much he was
looking forward to the visit and to renewing contacts with his old
friends there, the prime ministers office said in a statement.
Prime Minister Singh hoped his September 6-7 visit would provide an
opportunity to give added momentum and high level political direction
to bilateral ties, which have been intensifying steadily in recent
years.
He noted that there existed goodwill among the political parties in
India and Bangladesh, and encouraging people to people contacts was a
priority in the relationship.
For her part, Ms Hasina said that she personally and the people of
Bangladesh were waiting eagerly to receive the Indian prime minister
and that there were high expectations from the visit, which she hoped
would be a historic one.
Prime Minister Singh conveyed his warm personal greetings to Ms Hasina
and through her to the people of Bangladesh and observed that India
attached the highest importance to relations with Bangladesh and that a
strong and productive partnership between the two countries was in the
interest of the two peoples and the people of South Asia as a whole.
counterpart, Sheikh Hasina Wajed, on Monday.
[He] called the prime minister of Bangladesh [to] say how much he was
looking forward to the visit and to renewing contacts with his old
friends there, the prime ministers office said in a statement.
Prime Minister Singh hoped his September 6-7 visit would provide an
opportunity to give added momentum and high level political direction
to bilateral ties, which have been intensifying steadily in recent
years.
He noted that there existed goodwill among the political parties in
India and Bangladesh, and encouraging people to people contacts was a
priority in the relationship.
For her part, Ms Hasina said that she personally and the people of
Bangladesh were waiting eagerly to receive the Indian prime minister
and that there were high expectations from the visit, which she hoped
would be a historic one.
Prime Minister Singh conveyed his warm personal greetings to Ms Hasina
and through her to the people of Bangladesh and observed that India
attached the highest importance to relations with Bangladesh and that a
strong and productive partnership between the two countries was in the
interest of the two peoples and the people of South Asia as a whole.
No comments:
Post a Comment