Indian foreign secretary likely to visit Dhaka on December 10

Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri is expected to visit Bangladesh next week for consultations, the first trip to Dhaka by a senior Indian functionary since the interim government of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus came to power in August, people familiar with the matter said.

Though both sides are yet to make an official announcement about the visit, Misri is likely to be in Bangladesh on December 10 for the annual foreign office consultations, people familiar with preparations for the trip in both capitals said on condition of anonymity, reports Hindustan Times.

If it goes ahead, the visit will come at a time when India-Bangladesh relations are under unprecedented strain, with protests in several states bordering the neighbouring country over the persecution of the Hindu minority and the arrest of Bangladeshi monk Chinmoy Krishna Das on charges of sedition.

Bangladesh’s foreign ministry summoned Indian envoy Pranay Verma on Tuesday to protest the storming of the country’s consulate in Agartala by a large group of protesters on Monday.

The visit by the foreign secretary was decided on at a meeting between external affairs minister S Jaishankar and Bangladesh’s de facto foreign minister Touhid Hossain on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York on September 23, the people said.

At the time, this was the first high-level interaction between the two sides since former premier Sheikh Hasina stepped down in the face of widespread protests and the caretaker administration led by Yunus came to power in August.

“As things stand, the foreign secretary is slated to visit Bangladesh on December 10. But with a week still to go for the visit and the current state of relations, we will have to see how things pan out,” one of the people cited above said.

He was referring to diplomatic tensions created by various factors, including the targeting of Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh and the disquiet in Dhaka over Hasina’s presence in India, where she sought shelter after fleeing Bangladesh.

Yunus and other leaders of the interim government have spoken of seeking Hasina’s extradition from India.

The last foreign office consultations, a dialogue mechanism between the two foreign secretaries to review the overall bilateral relationship, were held in New Delhi in November 2023.

Matters such as the resumption of India-funded development projects, easing of the visa regime, more direct flights, and trade and investment are expected to figure in the proposed foreign office consultations, the people said.

The Bangladeshi side is keen for the visit to go ahead as it is being seen as an opportunity to clear the air between the two sides and to initiate steps to restore a semblance of normalcy to bilateral ties, a second person said. If the visit goes ahead, the possibility of a meeting between Misri and Yunus would not be ruled out, he added.

Under Hasina, Bangladesh emerged as India’s closest partner in the neighbourhood, and the two sides took a wide range of steps to bolster trade, energy and people-to-people connectivity. Besides reviving and launching several cross-border train and bus services, Bangladesh had granted India access to Chattogram and Mongla ports to facilitate the trans-shipment of goods from Kolkata to India’s landlocked northeastern states.