Swaraj to arrive in September

Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is expected to arrive in Bangladesh in the first half of September to attend the fourth Bangladesh-India Joint Consultative Commission (JCC) meeting.

This was discussed when Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Harsh Vardhan Shringla had a meeting with Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque at the foreign ministry yesterday.

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An Indian diplomat in New Delhi yesterday confirmed the upcoming visit of Swaraj.

The visit of Swaraj and the JCC meeting will take place at a time when the two countries resolved most of their pending matters, except the water sharing issue, and were enjoying excellent bilateral ties.

This will be her second visit to Bangladesh. She first visited the country on June 25-27 in 2014 as the external affairs minister after the BJP assumed power that year. 

Diplomatic sources said the JCC meeting would review the implementation and progress of decisions taken during Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to India in April.

The third JCC meeting was held in New Delhi on September 20 in 2014 when Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali led a 26-member delegation.

Diplomatic sources said the foreign offices of the two countries were working to finalise the date of Swaraj's visit. She will attend the UN General Assembly in New York in the second half of September.

Meanwhile, the Indian high commissioner expressed hope for a free and fair general election in Bangladesh.

“We're all democracies. We all believe in free and fair elections,” he said, adding that he was sure, like in many other democracies, this was something that would happen.

Talking to reporters after the meeting with the foreign secretary, Shringla, on participatory elections, said democracy means participation and whoever wants to take part in a democratic process.

He also said not participating in the democratic process means “you're not there”.

The high commissioner said the development profile between the two countries is large with $8 billion line of credit so far. He also said there are regular discussions on water resources issues.