I'm coming to India soon: Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina

Jakarta (Indonesia): Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today said she will visit India soon, after her travel plans in December were postponed reportedly due to New Delhi’s preoccupation with political challenges over demonetization.

“I’m coming to India,” Hasina told PTI on the sidelines of a summit of the Indian Ocean Rim Association here when asked about her expectations from the proposed visit.

During Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar’s visit to Dhaka in February, Hasina’s Deputy Press Secretary M Nazrul Islam had said the Bangladeshi premier will visit India in April.

She is to travel to India on the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had invited her in 2015.

Hasina was expected to travel to India in December, but the plan was postponed, amid speculation that it was not a suitable time for the visit given the Indian government’s preoccupation with the challenges thrown up by demonetisation of higher denomination currency notes.

It was believed that since the ties between the Union government and the West Bengal government – a key stakeholder in the Teesta Water sharing issue – had strained over the sudden scrapping of the notes, any agreement, or meaningful discussion, on an agreement was unlikely to materialise.

The two countries have successfully settled their other previously pending issues like the Land Boundary and enclave problem.