Foreign Minister Mahmood Ali leaves for India Thursday

Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali will leave for New Delhi on Thursday on his first official visit.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 15 Sept 2014, 03:14 PM
Updated : 15 Sept 2014, 04:22 PM

The foreign ministry on Monday said the minister would lead a delegation to the third Bangladesh-India Joint Consultative Commission (JCC) meeting to be held on Sep 20.

This will be the first such meeting after the regime change in Delhi where a whole range of bilateral issues will be discussed.

Apart from the bilateral meeting, the minister will pay a courtesy call on President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi before returning on Sep 21.

Senior officials at the foreign ministry earlier told bdnews24.com that Dhaka “sees the meeting as an opportunity to take the relations to a new height”.

The progress in bilateral cooperation in all areas including security, trade, connectivity, power, water resources, border management, infrastructure, people to people contacts, culture, environment, and education will be reviewed in the meeting.

File Photo

India will give top priority to security related issues while Bangladesh will place two specific proposals – river basin management and Bay of Bengal co-operation.
Bangladesh will also seek “specific timeframe” for resolving the long pending issues of Teesta water shaing and Land Boundary Agreement (LBA).
The LBA is awaiting ratification by the Indian parliament while Teesta water sharing treaty has been shelved following West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s resistance.
Officials, however, said the foreign minister would join the meeting with a “very positive” impression about the new government in India.
There have been many speculations before BJP leader Narendra Modi came to power in May.
But the external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj visit in June within a month of her assuming office made it clear that “they want to take the relations forward”.