Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to make his first official visit to Bangladesh in the first week of June, a highly placed diplomatic source in New Delhi told The Daily Star yesterday.
The premier has been “eagerly waiting” to visit Dhaka, said the diplomat.
“He [Modi] made a commitment to visit Dhaka after resolving at least one of the two major pending issues — Land Boundary Agreement and Teesta water sharing deal. As the LBA is done now, his visit to Bangladesh is confirmed.”
However, another source in Dhaka said Modi would be visiting Dhaka by the second week of June.
The Indian PM’s visit to Bangladesh will contribute positively to Indo-Bangla relations, said an Indian diplomat in Dhaka. Modi has already visited Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka in South Asia.
Officials in Bangladesh and India said both the governments were working to find a mutually convenient time for Modi’s trip to Dhaka.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina first invited Modi to visit Bangladesh when she phoned her opposite number on May 18 last year to congratulate him on his party’s victory in the national election.
Later that month, she wrote a letter to Modi inviting him to tour Bangladesh.
The Indian premier in a letter to Hasina in the following month said he accepted the invitation. He also invited Hasina to visit India.
Modi in March this year wrote another letter to his Bangladesh counterpart. Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar handed over the letter to Hasina on March 2.
India’s Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed the landmark constitution amendment bill to ratify the long-pending LBA with Bangladesh.
Source: The Daily Star
