India’s External Affairs Minister Jaishankar to start Dhaka visit by paying respect to Bangabandhu

S Jaishankar, who is embarking on his first to Dhaka as India's External Affairs Minister on Monday, will kick off the trip with a homage to Bangladesh’s founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

According to his itinerary, he will touch down at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport by a Biman Bangladesh Airlines regular flight at 9:20pm on Monday.

His Bangladesh counterpart AK Abdul Momen will receive him there.

His official engagement will begin on Tuesday morning by paying respect to Bangabandhu at the ‘Bangabandhu Museum’ in Dhanmondi.

This is the house where the architect of Bangladesh was killed along with his most of the family members on Aug 15, 1975. His daughters – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana – survived the bloodbath as they were abroad at that time.

From Dhanmondi, he will go to State Guesthouse Jamuna for official talks with Momen and later the two will hold a joint press briefing.

He will meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the afternoon.

Jaishankar took over as external affairs minister on May 31. He had visited Bangladesh earlier as foreign secretary.

On July 29, Momen said Jaishankar wanted to come to Dhaka earlier but his (Momen's) plan to perform hajj pushed back the Indian foreign minister's trip.

Momen and Jaishankar met in June on the sidelines of the 5th Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia or CICA in Tajikistan.

Bangladesh and India currently enjoy the best of relations and officials hope to deepen the ties even more.

Over 100 agreements have been signed in the last 10 years, with 68 of them having been penned in the last three years alone.

The decades-old land boundary as well as maritime issues has been resolved. But an equitable share of Teesta river water remains the one niggling issue.