At the invitation of the External Affairs Minister of India, H.E. Dr. S.Jaishankar, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh, H.E. Dr. Hasan Mahmud paid an official visit to India from February 7-9, 2024. This was Foreign Minister Mahmud’s first official visit to India, and his first bilateral visit to any country, after assuming office as the new Foreign Minister of Bangladesh in January 2024.
On February 7, External Affairs Minister held delegation-level talks with the Bangladesh Foreign Minister and hosted a dinner in his honour. During their interaction, the two Ministers reviewed the progress in wide-ranging areas of bilateral relations, including cross-border connectivity, economic and development partnership, cooperation in defence and security, power, energy, water resources and people-to-people exchanges. They also discussed areas of future engagement in line with the national development goals of the two countries, including the visions of “Viksit Bharat 2047” and “Smart Bangladesh 2041”. The two leaders also exchanged views on regional and multilateral issues of common interest. They expressed commitment to further enhance their collaboration to promote sub-regional cooperation within the framework of BIMSTEC, IORA and BBIN.
- Earlier, Foreign Minister Mahmud visited Rajghat to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi. He also held meeting with the National Security Advisor Shri Ajit Doval.
- During the visit, Foreign Minister Mahmud was also called on the President of India and held a meeting with Commerce and Industry Minister, Shri Piyush Goyal. He was travelled to Kolkata on 9 February before concluding his visit.
The visit of Foreign Minister of Bangladesh to India was the part of the on-going high-level exchanges between the two countries and has enabled both sides to chart out the course of their forward-looking engagement during the new term of the Government in Bangladesh. The visit followed the bilateral meeting between the two Foreign Ministers on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement Summit held in Uganda last month and has contributed to further strengthening of the traditional, long-standing friendship and cooperation between the two countries.