The visit of the Indian prime minister will be his first foray abroad since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, India’s Ministry of External Affairs noted in a statement Tuesday confirming the visit.
The visit would highlight the priority India attaches to Bangladesh, said the statement by MEA, also known as ‘South Block’ after the building housing its offices in Delhi.,
This visit is in connection with the commemoration of three epochal events - Mujib Borsho, the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman; 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Bangladesh and India; and the Golden Jubilee of Bangladesh’s Independence.
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Modi last visited Bangladesh in 2015.
During the visit, the Indian PM will attend the Independence Day programme of Bangladesh on March 26, as the guest of honour.
Modi’s programme for the visit, apart from holding bilateral consultations with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, also includes a call on President Md. Abdul Hamid.
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Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen will call on the Indian Prime Minister.
Modi will address a programme marking 50 years of independent Bangladesh at the Parade Ground on March 26, said Foreign Minister Momen on Monday.
He will visit Tungipara in Gopalganj on March 27 to pay homage to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
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Momen also disclosed that the Indian prime minister will be visiting two important temples of the Hindu faith located in Bangladesh - the Matua temple at Orakandi in Kashiani, Gopalganj and the Jashoreshwari Kali Temple in Satkhira- on the second day.
The two sites have been chosen carefully, analysts say, to achieve maximum impact on the hotly contested assembly elections in West Bengal, where Modi’s BJP is gunning for the state government against Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress.
The first of eight rounds of voting in the election takes place the very day that Modi will be making his temple visits.
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A one-to-one meeting between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart, besides delegation-level meetings, are all penciled in to be held on March 27, after Modi completes his temple visits.
Some Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) are likely to be signed between the two countries and a number of projects are likely to be inaugurated virtually in the presence of the two prime ministers, Momen has said.