Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is on a four-day state visit to the nearest neighboring country, India. State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak is accompanying her on this important visit. It is thought that, along with foreign affairs, trade and railways, Bangladesh’s partnership and understanding with India will also add new dimensions to technology.
Earlier on April 27, the Minister of State for ICT visited the campus and labs of the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi. Then he made 7 proposals calling for mutual cooperation from Bangladesh to move forward jointly with IIT in the bilateral meeting. In the meeting, they discussed how the two countries can jointly achieve self-reliance by creating eco-systems in the IT sector in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, cyber-security, software and hardware development, VLSI, etc. As part of this, an agreement on cyber security was executed. Delhi has also invested in education and training projects in high-tech parks in Bangladesh.
It is expected that the rest of the issues will be on the table for the sake of building a smart Bangladesh this time. In addition to the exchange of technical knowledge and skills, e-commerce may also benefit from cross-border facilitation.
However, in this visit, the issues of trade, energy, water distribution of common rivers and cooperation in solving the Rohingya crisis will be the most prominent in the discussion. Several agreements and memorandums of understanding may be signed between the two countries during this visit.
According to Bangladesh High Commission in Delhi, a convoy of 170 people including government and private persons are accompanying the Prime Minister during her visit to India. However, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen is not on this trip today due to illness. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam is present.
Besides, Minister of Liberation War A.K.M. Mozammel Haque, Minister of Commerce Tipu Munshi, Minister of Railways Nurul Islam Sujan, Economic Affairs Advisor to the Prime Minister are also accompanying the Prime Minister. Mosiur Rahman, Prime Minister’s Advisor on Private Industry and Investment Salman Fazlur Rahman and State Minister for Water Resources Zahid Farooq.
The Prime Minister landed at New Delhi’s Palam Airport on a VVIP chartered flight at 12:30 PM Bangladesh time on Monday (September 5). She was welcomed there by India’s Minister of State for Railways and Textiles Darshana Vikram Jardosh and Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Muhammad Imran.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will meet Indian President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar during her visit to New Delhi. She is scheduled to meet the family members of former President of India Pranab Mukherjee on the same day.
She will be officially welcomed by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi and given a formal guard of honour.
After the bilateral talks, several MoUs are likely to be signed between the two neighboring countries and a press statement will be issued later. Sheikh Hasina will later attend a lunch hosted in her honor by the Prime Minister of India.
Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar will meet the Prime Minister of Bangladesh today (Monday). India’s Northeast Region Development Minister G Kishan Reddy and Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi will meet her separately on September 7.
On September 7, the Bangladesh Prime Minister is expected to meet top business leaders and address a function to award ‘Mujib Scholarships’ to descendants of Indian Defense Force officers who were martyred or seriously injured during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.
The Prime Minister will visit the shrine of Khwaja Garib Nawaz and Ajmeer Sharif Dargah at Rajasthan on September 8 before returning to Dhaka. Today, on the first day of her visit to India (September 5), the Prime Minister will visit the shrine of Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi.
Sheikh Hasina is visiting India after three years since she last visited in 2019 before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.