Says in a letter to Hasina; 2 foreign secys discuss Teesta, land boundary; Dhaka sees ‘major change’ in India’s foreign policy
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has written to his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina that he is “eagerly waiting” to visit Dhaka.
In her instant reply, Hasina said she was “keenly waiting” to welcome Modi, Hasina’s Press Secretary AKM Shameem Chowdhuri told reporters yesterday.
Indian Foreign Secretary Dr Subramanyam Jaishankar, who arrived in Dhaka yesterday morning for less than a 24-hour visit, handed over Modi’s letter to Hasina when he called on her at her parliament office.
Modi’s letter is considered highly significant in the context of the current political turmoil in Bangladesh.
This is Modi’s second letter to Hasina since coming to power. He first wrote to the Bangladesh PM on June 26, 2014, when he accepted Hasina’s invitation to visit Dhaka.
In that letter, Modi also invited Hasina to visit India at her earliest convenience.
Meanwhile, Dhaka sees “a major change” in Indian foreign policy that New Delhi is focused on resolving bilateral problems and pending issues “expeditiously” with its next door neighbours.
“One thing became clear that they want to solve problems. They want to strengthen relations with regional countries and solve it quickly if there is any problem,” Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque said adding, “We see it a major change in Indian foreign policy.”
Haque came up with this observation yesterday after his first bilateral talks with his new Indian counterpart Subramanyam Jaishankar.
“The key message is to have a deeper friendship. We want cooperation, they also want cooperation on overall issues,” the foreign secretary told reporters at a press briefing on the outcome of the visit.
Bangladeshi and Indian diplomats said Jaishankar had “very successful and constructive” meetings with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque.
Modi has asked Jaishankar to go on a goodwill visit to all Saarc countries to give his neighbourhood outreach a push, a month after he replaced Sujatha Singh with Jaishankar.
Highly placed sources said India’s top diplomat also conveyed the message to the Bangladeshi leadership about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiative to move ahead with sub-regional approach for development as the Saarc nations collectively failed to deliver on development agenda.
They said Jaishankar told Dhaka that it was last year’s Saarc Summit in Kathmandu that prompted India to push ahead with the sub-regional connectivity arrangements with Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal to ensure easier transit for passenger, personal and cargo vehicles among the four Saarc nations.
Sources at the meetings told The Daily Star that the officials of the two countries discussed sub-regional cooperation on water, power, and connectivity and transit as well as power trade issues. Dhaka, Thimpu, New Delhi and Kathmandu are currently going ahead with several initiatives in these sectors.
Asked about sub-regional cooperation, Foreign Secretary Haque said there are two initiatives in this regard — one is water resources and power, and connectivity and transport. The next meeting on sub-regional cooperation will be held in Dhaka in the second half of the current year.
Haque told reporters they had focused on three major areas — bilateral relations, sub-regional and regional, and international relations — during the ‘brief’ bilateral talks with his Indian counterpart.
He said they discussed all issues including the LBA and Teesta, “but nothing specific” during the 40-minutes bilateral meetings.
“Of course we raised our concern on Teesta and conveyed Bangladesh’s concern about it,” he said replying to a question adding “Their feedback was positive.”
He said they discussed Saarc (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) and Bimstec (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) issues to know how these forums can work better.
“We also discussed about the weakness of Saarc and how to overcome the problems,” the foreign secretary added.
The secretary-to-secretary bilateral meeting had to be cut short as Jaishankar’s arrival was delayed in the morning due to heavy snow at Paro, Bhutan. Jaishankar will leave Dhaka for Islamabad this morning.
The foreign secretary said India will remove all the trade barriers and will soon give their feedback on the list of para-tariff barriers given to the Indian side.
Responding to another question, Haque said political issues were not discussed at the meeting.
When his attention was drawn to media reports that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Dhaka in March, the foreign secretary said, “I’m not aware of any specific date. But he wants to visit as soon as possible.”
Meanwhile, after his meeting with the foreign minister, Jaishankar told reporters that he had a very successful and constructive meeting and they wanted more cooperation from India.
Earlier emerging from meeting with the foreign secretary, Jaishankar said he discussed a wide range of issues. “We had a very good discussion,” he told reporters. Asked whether they discussed Teesta issues at the meeting, the Indian Foreign Secretary parried the question saying, “That’s all I would like to say at this time.”
Source: The Daily Star
