Foreign Secretary to visiting Dhaka, invite PM Hasina

India’s Foreign secretary, Vinay Mohan Kwatra, will travel to Dhaka on a two-day visit on Wednesday to discuss various issues, including finalising the schedule of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to New Delhi.

According to sources, Kwatra will call on PM Hasina on Thursday to hand over the invitation on behalf of PM Modi.

This will be followed a meeting with Bangladeshi foreign minister Hasan Mahmud.

Kwatra will then hold talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart Masud Min Momen.

Kwatra was scheduled to go to Dhaka on 20 April, but his trip was postponed due to unavoidable reasons.

It was tentatively decided that PM Hasina would visit India in the latter half of June, but India wants to reschedule the trip to July and Kwatra is supposed to formally brief Bangladesh regarding the issue.

A meeting is supposed to be held between the heads of the governments of two close South Asian neighbours – Bangladesh and India – following the election in both countries.

The long-disputed Teesta water-sharing issue is likely to dominate the meeting.

Diplomatic sources hinted an issue on a bigger plan centring Teesta river may also arise during the meeting as talks are making the rounds over undertaking a project on Teesta financed by China. India is also in a discomfort zone due to China’s project transboundary Teesta river.

Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping has invited prime minister Sheikh Hasina to visit Beijing in July. Dhaka, however, sent a message to New Delhi that her first bilateral visit would be to India after taking office following the 12th parliamentary election. – INDIA NEWS STREAM