Staff Reporter : The newly appointed Indian Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will arrive Bangladesh today [Monday]. He will land at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at around 9:30am in his special plane. Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque will receive his Indian counterpart, Foreign Office sources said. He will meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, her advisers, and Foreign Minister Abul Hasam Mahmood Ali , among others, to discuss a wide range of bilateral issues during his short visit for less than 24 hours. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar or more commonly S Jaishankar will meet Bangladesh Foreign Secretary at the Foreign Ministry around 11:15am. After that, he will sit in a meeting with Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali at about 3 pm. Finally, he will meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at 6pm. It is learnt that Jaishankar had been asked by Modi to convey to the Bangladesh government about India’s intention over two contentious issues; one is Teesta treaty and another is Land Boundary Agreement [LBA]. Dhaka has been demanding the passage of the LBA bill in India’s Parliament and also expecting that the LBA will be ratified during the ongoing session. On the other hand, Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee during her recent Dhaka visit assured the Bangladesh leadership of resolving the water sharing issue. Meanwhile, the diplomatic sources said some other issues like power generation and distribution, infrastructure development and investment in potential areas are likely to come up for discussions during his meeting with the government. Apart from it, the possibility of joint effort of Bangladesh and India to launch Satellite for South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation [SAARC] Region in 2016 can also be discussed in the meeting. Earlier on Sunday, the Indian Foreign Secretary began his ‘SAARC Yatra’ by first landing in Bhutan. The SAARC Yatra’ has undertaken at the behest of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs [MEA] Syed Akbaruddin said. After completion his visit in Bangladesh, he will leave for Pakistan on Tuesday [March 3] before concluding the first leg of his eight-country tour with Afghanistan on Wednesday [March 4]. Schedules of his visit to other SAARC countries have not been finalised yet, Syed Akbaruddin further said. Modi has prioritised India’s neighbourhood policy since taking over as Prime Minister last year. He had invited all SAARC leaders to his swearing-in ceremony. On January 29, Norendra Modi brought in Jaishankar to replace Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh.
