India, Bangladesh foreign secretaries meet in Dhaka amid frosty ties

Dhaka: Foreign Secretaries of India and Bangladesh met here Monday for the high-level talks between the two nations amid strained bilateral ties following the ouster of prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August.

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri arrived in Dhaka earlier in the day on an Indian Air Force jet for a day-long visit.

Soon after his arrival here, Misri met his Bangladeshi counterpart Mohammad Jashim Uddin and held one-on-one talks before the formal meeting with delegates from both sides.

It is the first high-level visit by an Indian official since August 5 when Hasina was ousted.

"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.

The official added that the Bangladeshi side would hold a media briefing later Monday about the talks, which were expected to feature all issues of bilateral ties.

The close ties between India and Bangladesh came under severe strain after 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.

Analysts speculated that recent incidents, including the arrest of the Hindu monk in Bangladesh, the alleged harassment of the minority community and attacks on Hindu temples in Bangladesh, and the attack on the Bangladesh mission in Agartala are likely to figure in the FS-level talks.

Interim government head Yunus earlier said India might not have liked the “revolution” ousting a “fascist regime. Members of his interim Cabinet said Indian media was largely exaggerating the harassment of minorities.

Dhaka said the sporadic violence was a manifestation of an outburst of anger against the leaders and activists of the ousted Hasina regime and the Hindus who were harassed were related to her Awami League party and violence had nothing to do with their religious faith.

In September, 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 UN summit of heads of state and government in September but had no meeting.

Misri is scheduled to meet Hossain and pay a courtesy call on Yunus.

Hossain on Sunday expressed optimism that Bangladesh and India would be able to overcome the kind of stalemate that the two neighbouring countries witnessed over the last couple of months.

"We expect that we will be able to overcome this impasse. Establishing mutual communication and meeting each other is very important to overcome any such stalemate," he said.

He, however, said it was also important to note that the relations between Bangladesh and India witnessed changes after 5 August, and both sides need to try and take forward the relations, accepting this changed reality.