Staff Reporter:
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir yesterday said Prime Minister Tarique Rahman will visit India once an appropriate environment is created, while no date has yet been fixed for the bilateral visit.
“No date has been fixed yet. However, the visit will certainly take place at an appropriate time,” he told journalists at the Foreign Ministry in Dhaka yesterday.
Kobir said the timing of the visit would be determined on the basis of mutual respect and national interests as well as the schedules and availability of the prime ministers of the two countries.
Asked whether the visit could take place before the upcoming United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the state minister said no specific date had yet been decided.
He, however, rejected suggestions that discussions between Dhaka and New Delhi over the visit had stalled.
“Just because a date has not been fixed does not mean that discussions had stopped. We had not fixed a date, but our discussions were continuing,” he said.
Kobir said the August 5 incident involving deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s media interac-tion from New Delhi had hurt the sentiments of the people of Bangladesh and Dhaka had clearly conveyed its position on the matter.
“Now our discussions are continuing again. Let us see. Once an appropriate time and conducive environment are created, the Prime Minister will certainly visit India,” he said.
The state minister said Bangladesh had expressed strong displeasure after Hasina addressed jour-nalists at a program in New Delhi on August 5, saying the development had hurt the sentiments of the Bangladeshi people and was not conducive to efforts to build harmonious bilateral relations.
India had said the program was organized by a private media entity and the Indian government had no involvement in it.
Against that backdrop, an international seminar in New Delhi featuring speakers linked to Bangla-desh’s Awami League was cancelled on August 29 after organizers said Delhi Police did not allow the program to go ahead.
Asked about the development, Kobir described it as a “positive step” by India and said Dhaka ex-pected neither country to provide sanctuary or space to individuals accused of terrorism or serious crimes in the other.
Kobir has consistently maintained that there should be no rush over the Prime Minister’s first India visit and that adequate diplomatic groundwork must precede a summit-level engagement.
In an interview with last month, he said the visit could take place once an appropriate environ-ment was created based on mutual trust and confidence, respect for sovereignty, diplomatic dia-logue and a dignified invitation.
