Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri expressed his concerns regarding the safety of minorities during his visit to Bangladesh.
Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on Monday said that his discussions with Bangladesh Foreign Adviser Touhid Hussain allowed him to assess the relations between the two countries.
Misri arrived on an Indian Air Force jet on Tuesday for a day-long visit to hold high-level talks with the foreign adviser, his Bangladeshi counterpart, and other high-level officials amid strained relations between the two countries.
“Today’s discussions have allowed both of us to take stock of our relations, and I appreciate the opportunity today to have had a frank, candid, and constructive exchange of views with all my interlocutors,” he told the media after meeting the Foreign Adviser.
“Today’s discussions have allowed both of us to take stock of our relations, and I appreciate the opportunity today to have had a frank, candid, and constructive exchange of views with all my interlocutors,” he told the media after meeting the Foreign Adviser.
“We also discussed recent developments, and I conveyed our concerns, including those related to the safety and welfare of minorities. We also discussed regrettable attacks on cultural and religious properties,” he added.
It is the first time an Indian official has visited Bangladesh for high-level talks since Sheikh Hasina was ousted as Prime Minister on August 5.
Soon after arriving in Dhaka, Misri met his Bangladeshi counterpart, Mohammad Jashim Uddin and held one-on-one talks before the formal meeting with delegates from both sides.
“The meeting between our foreign secretary, Jashim Uddin, and his counterpart, Vikram Misri, is taking place as scheduled at the state guest house, Padma. They first held brief one-on-one talks, and then the formal meeting began with delegates from both sides,” a Bangladeshi foreign ministry official said, according to PTI
Bilateral ties deteriorated since Sheikh Hasina’s ouster
The close ties between India and Bangladesh came under severe strain after Sheikh Hasina was forced to leave the country in the face of a massive anti-government protest in August. Nobel Peace laureate Mohammad Yunus came to power days after Hasina fled to India.
The relations deteriorated further in recent weeks over attacks on Hindus and the arrest of Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das.
There have been a spate of incidents of violence against Hindus and other minorities, as well as attacks on temples in Bangladesh, in the last few weeks that triggered strong concerns in New Delhi.
In September, Bangladesh’s foreign affairs adviser, Mohammad Touhid Hossain, met briefly with his Indian counterpart, S Jaishankar, in New York on the sidelines of a UN general assembly meeting.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Yunus led their respective delegations at the September UN summit of heads of state and government but did not meet.
Misri is also scheduled to pay a courtesy call on Yunus.
