FM Khalilur may visit Delhi in April: Report

Bangladesh Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman is expected to make a brief visit to New Delhi next month, Hindustan Times reported today (20 March), citing people familiar with the matter.

Khalilur is expected to make a stopover in the Indian capital on 8 April while travelling to Mauritius to attend the Indian Ocean Conference, the daily said.

If it materialises, the visit would be the first by Khalilur as foreign minister since the new BNP government came to power in February, as New Delhi and Dhaka carry forward efforts to normalise relations after a period of strain under Muhammad Yunus’s interim government.

Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pranay Verma met Khalilur in Dhaka last month and extended him an invitation from Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to visit India at an early date.

According to Hindustan Times, Tarique Rahman is likely to visit a South Asian country — Bhutan or the Maldives — with Thimphu widely expected to be his first foreign visit since becoming prime minister.

Responding to a letter dated 26 February from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi handed over to Tarique by Indian Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla at the swearing in ceremony in Dhaka, the Bangladesh prime minister acknowledged India’s “kind gesture” of sending the speaker to the swearing-in of his new government and said he deeply valued Modi’s “kind reflection on the historic and long-standing ties between our two countries,” said the newspper.

Tarique also emphasised his government’s intention to take forward relations and engagements with India based on equality and mutual trust.

“Bangladesh accords high importance to its relationship with India, a partnership shaped by history, culture and geography that we share. Our two people share considerable commonality and enjoy deep-rooted ties,” he said.

“As our government assumes office with a robust mandate, we look forward to advancing our ties and engagements with India, premised on dignity, equality, mutual trust and respect [and] benefit sharing. I do believe, if Dhaka and Delhi would address issues in ways that yield gains for the common people, there is so much that our two countries can accomplish in shared interests,” he added.

Tarique referred to India’s vision of a developed India by 2047 and said he was confident that the two countries could together “reinvigorate our cooperative engagements to secure peace, harmony, stability and prosperity for all people in the longest time.” 

He also thanked Modi for the invitation to visit India along with his family. “I look forward to undertaking a visit at a mutually convenient time and to engaging in meaningful discussion,” Tarique said.