Mukherjee to visit Dhaka in mid-January: Bangla FM

Anisur Rahman

Dhaka, Jan 4 (PTI) Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee is expected to visit Dhaka in mid-January as Sheikh Hasina prepares to take office of the Prime Minister on Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry said here Sunday.

"It is my understanding that Mr Mukherjee will visit
Bangladesh during the month (January) while the itinerary of
his visit will be fixed by the incoming government," Foreign
Affairs Adviser of the outgoing caretaker government Iftekhar
Ahmed Chowdhury told PTI.

An Indian High Commission spokesman also confirmed his
expected visit but said they were yet to get a final
communication from New Delhi. Bangladesh foreign ministry
officials said they expect Mukherjee to be in Dhaka by middle
of January.

Mukherjee’s visit was likely to be the first by an
Indian government leader after the landslid victory of
Hasina's Awami League-led alliance in last week’s landmark
general election. The alliance in which ex-president H M
Ershad's Jatiya Party is one of the main constituents, won
three-fourths of the seats in the 300-member Parliament with
AL bagging 230 seats alone.

The election was held after two years of emergency
rules under a non-party interim government with crucial
military supports.

Soon after its installation, the interim government
said relations with India was a priority in its foreign
relations agenda.

Chowdhury repeatedly underlined that the caretaker
administration aimed to place Bangladesh's relations with
India "on a firm footing so that future governments of both
the countries can build on the progress we make".

"It is my view that the cooperation between Bangladesh
and India are now on a trajectory from which there should be
no reversal," Chowdhury underlined.

New Delhi congratulated Bangladesh on Tuesday for
staging a fair and peaceful general elections marking the
return of multi-party democracy, saying the victory of the
grand alliance was a major landmark in democratic politics in
South Asia.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress Party
chief Sonia Gandhi and opposition leader Lal krishna Advani
also called Hasina to congratulate her on her landslide
election victory. They expect the bilateral ties to be
strengthened further during the tenure of the coming
government in Bangladesh.

Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, Indian High Commissioner in
Dhaka, yesterday visited Hasina to handover congratulatory
letters from Indian President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister
Singh, and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya.
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