Amid strained ties and growing criticisms from both sides on post-August 5 issues, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri is coming to Bangladesh on Monday to hold several meetings apart from attending the foreign secretary-level talks to address mutual concerns.
This is going to be the first visit to be made by a senior Indian government official to Bangladesh since the interim government, led by Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus, came to power in August 8.
Foreign Secretary Misri and his Bangladesh counterpart, Md Jashim Uddin, will lead their respective delegation at the Bangladesh-India Foreign Office Consultations (FOC).
"The Foreign Secretary is scheduled to visit Bangladesh on the 9th of December. He will meet his counterpart, and there will be several other meetings during the visit," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during the weekly media briefing in New Delhi on Friday.
The FOC led by the Foreign Secretaries is a structured engagement between Bangladesh-India.
"We look forward to this meeting," said the MEA Spokesperson.
Spokesperson at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) Mohammad Rafiqul Alam said there are always efforts to keep all the elements of the bilateral relations on agenda. "Discussion is underway."
He, however, said there are some broad areas - trade, border management, connectivity, and water issues - and these will be discussed.
Asked about the situation on the ground in Bangladesh and the arrest of Chinmoy Krishna Das, the MEA reiterated its hope that the legal rights of the concerned individuals are respected and the trial is conducted in a "fair and transparent" manner.
"As far as the situation on the ground regarding the individuals you want to know, we want to reiterate our position again that they have legal rights and we hope that these legal rights will be respected and that the trial will be fair and transparent. They will get a fair and transparent trial," Jaiswal added.
Chinmoy Krishna Das, who is associated with the Sammilita Sanatani Jagaran Jote, was arrested in Dhaka on November 25 on 'sedition' charges.
Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain on Wednesday said Bangladesh wants good relations with India on a reciprocal basis.
“It is very clear that we want good relations, but it should be reciprocal. We need to work to that end,” he told reporters while responding to a question at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The FOC is likely to cover a range of bilateral issues, including the potential extradition of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is currently in India and visa issues.
At the Foreign Ministry's weekly briefing on November 21, former Director General of the Public Diplomacy Wing Toufique Hasan said, "There is a scope for discussion on the matter (extradition of Sheikh Hasina)."
Sheikh Hasina, who fled Dhaka on August 5 and has been residing in India since then, is facing a trial in Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal for alleged involvement in mass killings during the July-August uprising.
While the government intends to bring her back, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not yet received any formal directive to initiate the extradition process.
Dhaka will engage with Delhi and begin the formal process in accordance with the existing extradition treaty once we receive the necessary instructions.
The last FOC, an institutional dialogue mechanism between the two foreign secretaries to review the entire gamut of bilateral relations, was held in New Delhi on 24 November 2023.
Both sides held comprehensive discussions on a wide range of issues covering border and security, trade, commerce and connectivity, cooperation in water, power and energy sectors, people to people ties and development cooperation in Bangladesh.
They also exchanged views on sub, regional, regional and multilateral issues.