India to be new Bangla FM’s first overseas destination

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New Delhi, January 15

Newly appointed Bangladesh Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud said on Monday that he would be visiting India as his first bilateral visit, though the schedule is not yet finalised.

Delhi has already invited Mahmud for a meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

Mahmud was the minister of state for foreign affairs when Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina began her now-uninterrupted run as Prime Minister in 2009.

Speaking to the media in Dhaka four days after being named Foreign Minister, Mahmud said India stood with Bangladesh when the latter undertook efforts to continue the democratic process. “Conspiracies existed to tamper with the 2014 elections. In 2018, there were efforts to make the elections controversial and questionable. However, India was on our side,” he told journalists after meeting the Indian High Commissioner Pranay Verma.