New Delhi, June 5 (IANS) With the land boundary agreement tied up, Prime Minister Narendra Modi leaves on Saturday on a two-day “historic” visit to Bangladesh where he will hold talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina and flag off of two trans-border bus services.
Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar told the media that the Land Boundary Agreement was the centrepiece of the prime minister’s 36-hour visit to Dhaka.
He said India, which is providing 500 MW electricity to Bangladesh, would soon “increase substantially” its power supply, and this time to eastern Bangladesh.
India is also set to supply diesel to Bangladesh to help improve the energy situation.
Among the several agreements to be inked would be to make available Bangladesh TV programmes in India, he said.
Jaishankar said the ratification of the LBA, besides being an affirmation of the government’s “neighbourhood first” policy, would also give a fillip to India’s Act East policy.
Giving the itinerary of the visit, he said Modi would arrive in Dhaka late in the morning after which he would be accorded a ceremonial welcome. He would then proceed to visit the National Martyr’s Memorial and then the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum of of the country’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rehman.
After lunch, Modi, along with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Sheikh Hasina, will flag off the two bus services: the Kolkata-Dhaka-Agartala service and the Dhaka-Guwahati-Shillong service.
After this, Modi and Hasina would attend the ceremony of exchange of instruments of ratification of the LBA and the protocol, for implementing the land swap.
The two leaders would then hold talks, following which there would be exchange of agreements and both would lay “virtual foundation stones” of some projects. Both leaders would make their press statements. Modi would attend a dinner hosted by Hasina.
The following day, Modi is to visit the Sri Sri Dhakeshwari National temple, the Ramakrishna Mission and the new chancery complex of the Indian High Commission in Dhaka. He would meet President Abdul Hamid and hold talks with him over lunch.
Modi would then receive a number of Bangladeshi leaders, political and commercial. The political leaders would include opposition leader Begum Raushan Ershad, and former prime minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief Begum Khaleda Zia.
He would meet the presidents of leading chambers of commerce in Bangladesh and the leaders of the Left parties. His last engagement before leaving for home would be to address a meeting of a cross-section of Bangladeshi society at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre.