Bangladesh's Foreign Affairs Advisor to the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus, Touhid Hossain, is likely to meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on the margins of the Indian Ocean Conference that is being held in Muscat next week.
"According to diplomatic sources, during this meeting, Bangladesh would like to convey a message aimed at preventing further strains in the relationship between both nations," reported Prothom Alo, Bangladesh's leading Bengali daily.
The 8th Indian Ocean Conference is being organised by India Foundation in association with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Oman on February 16-17 in Muscat, Oman. The theme for this year of the conference, which serves as a key platform for regional dialogue, is 'Voyages to New Horizons of Maritime Partnership'.
EAM Jaishankar and Hossain had last met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in September, marking the first high-level engagement between India and Bangladesh's interim government after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ouster in August 2024.
Even as India goes on batting for normalization of ties between the two next-door neighbours, the Bangladesh regime that had emerged following the mass uprising of students and the dramatic fall of Hasina's Awami League government on August 5 last year, has come in for sharp criticism for flinging false allegations and even targetting the Hindu community of Bangladesh.
In December, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited Dhaka on a day-long visit and conveyed New Delhi's concerns, especially those related to the safety and welfare of minorities in Bangladesh, to the top leadership of the interim government.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated that, during these meetings, Misri highlighted India's support for a democratic, stable, peaceful, progressive and inclusive Bangladesh while reiterating New Delhi's willingness to build a positive and constructive relationship with Bangladesh, based on mutual trust and respect and mutual sensitivity to each other’s concerns and interests.
"Foreign Secretary said that the people are the greatest stakeholders of the India-Bangladesh relations. He stated that India's development cooperation and multiple engagements with Bangladesh in all possible areas like connectivity, trade, power, energy, and capacity building have the ultimate benefitting objective as those of Bangladesh," read a statement issued by the MEA at the conclusion of Misri's visit on December 9.
During his visit, the Foreign Secretary raised some regrettable incidents of attacks on cultural, religious and diplomatic properties in Bangladesh and also highlighted that India desires positive, constructive and mutually beneficial ties with the country.
Last Friday, Nural Islam, the Bangladesh Acting High Commissioner to India, was summoned by MEA to the South Block after Dhaka asked New Delhi to stop Hasina from making "fabricated" statements.
India made it clear to the Bangladeshi diplomat that the comments attributed to the former Bangladesh PM have been made in her individual capacity in which India has no role to play.
"Conflating this with the Government of India's position is not going to help add positivity to bilateral relations," said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.
"It was expressed that India wants a positive, constructive and mutually beneficial relationship with Bangladesh and that has been emphasised time and again during last several high-level interactions. It is, however, sad that the routine utterances by Bangladesh authorities continue to throw negative color over us regarding which it holds us responsible for internal governance issues. In fact, those statements of Bangladesh are responsible for continued negativity. While the Government of India will do all it can to have a mutually rewarding relationship we expect that Bangladesh will also reciprocate similarly without vitiated atmosphere," he added.
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