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Target stronger ties with India

Dhaka to send team to Delhi to talk with new govt

Rezaul Karim
To forge relations with Narendra Modi-led BJP government, Dhaka will send a high-powered delegation to New Delhi as a move to infuse momentum in India-Bangladesh ties.
Diplomatic sources said the delegation led by Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and Gowher Rizvi, international affairs adviser to the prime minister, is expected to pay a two-day visit soon after the installation of Modi's cabinet.
The delegation will convey Dhaka's firm stance to address India's security concerns and irritants that stood in the way of maintaining friendly relations between the two countries.
Dhaka hopes for a quick resolution of outstanding issues like the Teesta water-sharing and land boundary agreements with the new government of India.
A bill to ratify the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) remains pending in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Indian parliament, with a proposed deal on Teesta watersharing still to be inked.
During the visit, the delegation will press the BJP-led government for resolving the issues including the LBA and Teesta water-sharing deal at the earliest.
The foreign ministry sources said Bangladesh wanted to be the first country to invite Modi to visit Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh delegation, during its probable visit to New Delhi early next month, will handover a formal invitation
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letter from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
However, a source at the Indian High Commission in Bangladesh told The Daily Star yesterday that "as of now, there is no such proposal from Bangladesh government to send a delegation".
But they hope to receive such proposal after formation of the new cabinet in New Delhi, the source added.
On Friday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in her letters to Narendra Modi and BJP President Rajnath Singh congratulated them on the BJP's landslide victory and invited them to visit Bangladesh.
Hasina had a conversation with Modi over the phone. In her letter, she also requested Modi to visit Bangladesh as the first foreign destination.
Diplomatic sources in Dhaka and New Delhi said though there had been no hurried response from BJP, it was
impossible for any leader or party of India to ignore Bangladesh considering its geo-political location.
On July 27, 2013, the Awami League-led government sent its High Commissioner in New Delhi, Tariq A Karim, to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in Gandhinagar to build a rapport with BJP, a senior official at the foreign ministry told The Daily Star yesterday.
This visit was highly significant as Karim was the first envoy of a Muslim majority country to meet Modi, and since then Dhaka was maintaining contact with BJP leadership.
Dhaka's relations with New Delhi, even after the change of government in India, may get a fresh impetus in respect of trade and investment, said the foreign ministry official.
There is no denying the fact that Congress party in India and Awami League (AL) have had close links since long, and Dhaka believes that Modi government would continue the legacy
of Vajpayee in maintaining ties with Bangladesh, the official said.
The government has decided to make up all-out efforts both through diplomatic and political channels to establish strong relations with the BJP government, highly placed sources said.
As part of that move the AL has also planned to send a high-level party delegation in New Delhi to have discussion with BJP stalwarts aiming to establish party-to-party relations like the Congress-AL ties.
The AL will also propose an exchange of party level leaders for reaching greater understanding between the two parties.
The foreign ministry sources also said Hasina, who will pay a four-day visit to Japan on May 25-28, is likely to send two separate delegations to India upon her return from Tokyo.
Hasina is also due to visit China from June 6 to 11.