Hasina to visit India on June 21

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will visit New Delhi on June 21-22.

PM’s Press Secretary Md Nayeemul Islam Khan confirmed it to The Daily Star last night.

The decision comes just a week after the PM’s visit to India to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

According to sources in the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi and Indian Ministry of External Affairs, Hasina and Modi will have a one-on-one meeting followed by a delegation-level meeting on June 22 at the Hyderabad House in New Delhi.

She is supposed to return home that day.

A diplomatic source in Dhaka told The Daily Star yesterday, “The decision for a bilateral visit to India is somewhat sudden, but leadership of the two countries wanted to have the visit now after the elections in both countries.”

The source said the leaders of the two countries want to advance the existing relations that have deepened over more than a decade, especially in trade and connectivity.

One of the major points could be on the Teesta water sharing deal that could not be signed despite all preparations in 2011 because of the opposition from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Also, from regional perspectives, Bangladesh faces the Rohingya crisis that has worsened because of intensification of conflicts between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army in the bordering Rakhine State.

“The details of the bilateral visit was yet to be prepared,” a foreign ministry official told this correspondent.

Hasina is likely to visit Beijing on July 9-12.