Dhaka, Feb 17: Touhid Hossain, the Foreign Affairs Advisor to the interim government in Bangladesh led by Muhammad Yunus, emphasised on the importance of starting the discussions for renewal of the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty during his meeting with India’s External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar held in Muscat on Sunday, the Bangladeshi media reported on Monday.
“Diplomatic sources said that the meeting between the Bangladesh Foreign Affairs Advisor and the Indian Foreign Minister in Muscat lasted less than half an hour. During the discussion, the two emphasised the importance of working to overcome the challenges that have arisen in the current context of bilateral relations.
During their discussion, the topic of organising a meeting between the Chief Advisor Professor Muhammad Yunus and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC Summit to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, in April also came up,” reported Bangladesh’s leading daily Prothom Alo on Monday.
Quoting Bangladesh Foreign Ministry’s statement, the local media in Dhaka mentioned that during the meeting, that was held on the sidelines of the 8th Indian Ocean Conference (IOC) in Oman’s Muscat on Sunday, Hossain also highlighted the importance of holding the meeting of SAARC Standing Committee and urged the Indian government to consider the matter.
Both the countries also recognised the challenges in bilateral relations and discussed the necessity to work together to address those,” the reports detailed. With a three-day Director General-level conference of the border guards of the two countries starting in New Delhi from Monday, both Hossain and Jaishankar expressed hope that border-related issues will be resolved through discussions at the meeting. “Met Foreign Affairs Advisor Md. Touhid Hossain of the Interim Government of Bangladesh.
Conversation was focused on our bilateral relationship, as also on BIMSTEC,” EAM Jaishankar posted on X after his meeting with Hossain, on Sunday. EAM Jaishankar and Hossain had last met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in September, marking the first high-level engagement between India and Bangladesh’s interim government after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ouster in August 2024.
Even though India continues to bat for the normalisation of relations between the two neighbouring countries, the current regime in Dhaka has faced massive criticism for making groundless accusations and also targetting minorities, especially the Hindu community in Bangladesh, since the mass uprising of students and the dramatic fall of Hasina’s Awami League government, last year.
In December, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited Dhaka, conveying New Delhi’s concerns, especially those related to the safety and welfare of minorities in Bangladesh, to the top leadership of the interim government. The 6th Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Summit is scheduled to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, from April 2-4, later this year. Bangladesh, which will take over as the next chair of BIMSTEC at the summit, is hoping for a Yunus-PM Modi meeting taking place during the Bangkok event.
IANS
