Bangladesh foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen is expected to visit India next week to prepare the ground for a trip by foreign minister AK Abdul Momen and to open a new deputy high commission in Chennai.
This will be the first high level visit from the Bangladesh side after a long gap and Masud Bin Momen is expected to meet his Indian counterpart Harsh Shringla and other senior officials while in the country during February 23-25, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.
Masud Bin Momen will begin his visit by travelling to Chennai to open the new deputy high commission, the fifth such post in the country and the first in southern India. Bangladesh currently has assistant and deputy high commissions in Agartala, Guwahati, Kolkata and Mumbai.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Bangladesh had emerged as the largest source of foreign tourists for India, with some 2.5 million people visiting the country in 2019. Tens of thousands of Bangladeshi visitors travel to south India for medical treatment, and this was one of the key reasons behind the decision to open the new mission in Chennai, the people cited above said.
The frequency of flights under an air bubble arrangement between India and Bangladesh were increased from seven to 21 per week late last year and restrictions on travellers from Bangladesh were eased at some Indian airports such as Kolkata this month with the Omicron wave subsiding.
While in New Delhi, Masud Bin Momen is expected to carry out a comprehensive review of bilateral relations and India-backed development projects in Bangladesh during his meeting with his Indian counterpart, the people said.
The meeting will also pave the way for a visit by the Bangladesh foreign minister, the dates for which are yet to be finalised. As Bangladesh has a busy domestic political calendar in the coming weeks, Abdul Momen is likely to visit India in early March or May, the people said.
The top leadership of the two countries have interacted virtually at regular intervals amid the pandemic and Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Dhaka in March last year to participate in celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh’s independence.
However, this will be Abdul Momen’s first visit to India since he called off a planned trip in December 2019, hours after the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, or CAB, which had generated concern in Bangladesh. Another Bangladesh minister had also called off a visit to Meghalaya on the same day.
Officially, the Bangladesh side had said at the time that Abdul Momen called off the visit because of pressing domestic engagements. At the time, Dhaka was upset by the controversial CAB, which was passed to give citizenship to members of non-Muslim minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who took refuge in India till December 2014 on account of religious persecution. The Bangladeshi leadership was also irked by public comments by BJP leaders about deporting illegal migrants from the northeast.
These concerns were addressed by leaders of the two sides in subsequent interactions and India launched several major connectivity and infrastructure projects amid the pandemic to boost links between Bangladesh and the north-eastern states.
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