The Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid will visit Dhaka from February 16 to 17 to co-chair the second meeting of the India-Bangladesh Joint Consultative Commission, with his Bangladeshi counterpart, Dipu Moni.
During this two-day visit, he will meet and hold discussions with incumbent Bangladeshi Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, officials from the Home Ministry, and from the Water Resource Ministry.
Both sides will review the progress of initiatives undertaken in accordance with the Framework Agreement on Cooperation for Development, signed during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Dhaka in 2011. Khurshid is also expected to meet the leader of Bangladesh’s main opposition party, the Bangladesh National Party, Khaleda Zia.
This visit comes at a time when the Jamaat-e-Islami Party risks being delisted from the election process. Khurshid’s visit – part of India’s increasing engagement with Bangladesh – follows Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai’s visit to the country in January, and is a measure to lay the groundwork for Indian President Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to Dhaka, scheduled for March 2013.