Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen is scheduled to depart for New Delhi on Thursday to engage in foreign office consultations with his counterpart, Vinay Mohan Kwatra.
Even though the upcoming visit has sparked some speculations, particularly given its timing in relation to the upcoming general elections, the foreign secretary assured that his visit is of a routine diplomatic nature and should not be misconstrued as a political undertaking.
"I am not carrying a different message from the Prime Minister (Sheikh Hasina)," he said when asked, whether he would carry any political message from the prime minister.
“Generally, we have made a lot of progress in the last one year in our bilateral relations. We will take stock of that and find out where special emphasis would be needed. So that we can implement that after the election,” he said.
“You can match (after the meeting),” he said, when asked about any hidden agenda.
He, however, said if they ask anything about the election, the Bangladesh delegation will certainly explain that. But there is no different message from the prime minister. “This is routine mechanism.”
This is the second phase of the foreign office consultation which will be held on Friday. The first one took place at the beginning of the year.
The priorities of the meeting are: politics, defence, security, trade-investment, connectivity, and energy.
There will be issues related to power and common rivers, regional, subregional and multilateral assistance, development assistance, consular assistance.
Meeting with New Delhi-based envoys
Apart from the political talk with the Indian foreign secretary, Masud Bin Momen would also brief 90 non-resident diplomats based in Delhi.
"90 countries have embassies in Delhi. I will meet them in Delhi. I will interact with them in a session. We will brief all these mission heads about our development progress as well as the current situation, and upcoming elections," he said.
"I will brief them about the preparation of the Election Commission. They may have questions about the election observation," the foreign secretary added.
He, however, said the main objective of the interaction would be to launch campaign about the Bangladesh's candidature in IMO (International Maritime Organization) elections in Category C.
"We generally get the opportunity to interact with them directly. I can always tell or lobby those who are here (in Dhaka). But it is necessary to go there and tell them directly," he said.
Besides, the foreign secretary said many non-resident diplomats could not present their credentials due to the busy schedule of the president.
He will assure them that he will provide a schedule to present their credentials as soon as possible.
