Jaishankar likely to meet Bangladesh foreign adviser in Oman next week

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is likely to meet Bangladesh foreign adviser Touhid Hossain in Oman next week.

Sources told The Tribune on Wednesday that the efforts were underway to schedule a meeting between Jaishankar and Hossain in Muscat, which could take place on the sidelines at the venue for a scheduled conference held by India Foundation, a New Delhi-based think tank.

India Foundation is organising the 8th Indian Ocean Conference in association with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Oman on February 16-17 in Muscat. The theme for this year’s conference is “Voyages to New Horizons of Maritime Partnership”. Jaishankar will co-chair the conference along with Oman’s foreign minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad bin Hamood Albusaidi and Singapore’s foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan.

Efforts being made for meeting

Sources said “resources are being channelised and efforts are being made” for a meeting between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Bangladesh foreign adviser Touhid Hossain in Muscat

If the meeting happens, it would be the second bilateral meeting between the two leaders after 5 August last year when former PM Sheikh Hasina was ousted from the country

The meet will provide an opportunity to ease the prevailing tensions between the two neighbouring countries 

The sources said “resources are being channelised and efforts are being made” for the meet to happen.  This would be the second bilateral meeting between Jaishankar and Hossain after 5 August last year—when Sheikh Hasina was ousted from the country following unprecedented student protests over reservation in the country’s government jobs, if it takes place.  The meet if materialised will be an occasion to ease the prevailing tensions between the two neighbouring countries.

Last year in September, both Jaishankar and Hossain met in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.

The last diplomatic meeting between India and Bangladesh took place in December last year, when Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri met Bangladesh’s interim government’s chief adviser Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh foreign secretary Md Jasim Uddin and also Hossain in Dhaka.

The reports of a meeting between Jaishankar and Hossain come at a time when vandals recently destroyed late Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s residence, Bangabandhu Memorial Museum, in Dhaka. Rahman known as “Father of Bangladeshi Nation”, strived to make East Pakistan an independent country with the help from India in 1971. Rahman was the father of former Bangladesh PM Hasina.

India had expressed regret after the incident, strongly condemning the “act of vandalism”.

Following the incident, both India and Bangladesh summoned each other’s acting envoys. Bangladesh lodged a protest with India’s acting envoy, urging New Delhi to stop ousted PM Hasina from making incendiary statements. However, India conveyed to the acting High Commissioner of Bangladesh in New Delhi that such statements made by Dhaka are “in fact responsible for the persistent negativity”.

The tensions have heightened between India and Bangladesh since the fall of Hasina government on 5 August last year. Hasina has taken refuge in India since then. There has been request from Bangladesh government for Hasina’s extradition, however India has not yet responded to it.

In January, the ties nosedived again between the two countries when Bangladesh objected to India’s border fencing project within its own territory. Both sides had summoned each other’s envoys in their respective capitals.