Foreign Secretaries of Bangladesh and India will have their first bilateral meeting of the year on February 1.
Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque and his Indian Counterpart S Jaishankar will be stalk taking of the development of joint statement declared during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Dhaka in June.
“I will be going to New Delhi on a two-day visit on the invitation of the Indian Foreign Secretary,” Shahidul said.
A foreign ministry official seeking anonymity said the foreign secretary will meet Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and other senior Indian officials.
Jaishankar came to Dhaka in March and again in June with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year but Shahidul did not undertake any return trip.
The official said the foreign secretary was supposed to go to India on December 3 on a two-day visit, but it was postponed due to some unavoidable circumstances.
Both the secretaries will discuss the joint statement “Naya Projonmo, Nayi Disha”, a roadmap for future development and cooperation, he said.
After the Modi visit, a substantial progress has been made in a number of sectors, he added.
Implementation of Land Boundary Agreement is very satisfactory as the transfer of enclaves and adversely possessed land have been done.
The problem related to 6.5 kilometre un-demarcated land is expected to be resolved soon at the highest political level, the official said.
Both the countries agreed on fixing the transit fees at Tk 0.19 per kilogram while tariff rate for Palatana power plant has been fixed at Rs 5.5.
The standard of procedures for Coastal Shipping Agreement has been declared and trial run is expected to be held soon, the official said.
“In the meeting, Indian proposed nuclear cooperation agreement, implementations of projects under the second line of credit is expected to be discussed,” he said.
Bangladesh will strongly raise Teesta water sharing and border killing issues as very little progress was made in those two areas.
“Many progress has been made in a number of areas but Bangladesh is yet to get its due share of water,” he said.
Dhaka will strongly raise border killing issue as the number of killings exceed over 40 in 2015, he added.
