The visit of Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar to Dhaka on the first led of his ‘Saarc Jatra’ has been marked for the change in Delhi’s policy towards its neigbours in that he communicated Delhi’s desire to ressolve problems with neighbours and that too quickly.
This impression has been given by Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque who briefed the press on the visit and different meetings that S Jaishankar has in Dhaka during his stay here.S Jaishankar had talks with the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Minister Mahmud Ali and saw Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Although our foreign office tried to engage him on the outstanding bilateral issued like sharing of Teesta Water and ratification of the Land Boundary Agreement, there was neither time nor scope to zero in on sepcifics.
As Shahidul Haque said they discussed a whole range of bilateral, sub-regional, regional and international issues during the “short” meeting.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked Jaishankar to make a goodwill visit to all SAARC countries to give his neighbourhood outreach a push. Modi’s new initiative came a month after he replaced Sujatha Singh with Jaishankar.
“We raised our concern on Teesta,” he said, replying a question. “Their feedback was positive”.
“One thing that became clear is that they want to solve problems. They want to strengthen relations with regional countries and solve problem, if is any, quickly”.
“We see it as a major change in Indian foreign policy,” Haque was quoted as saying.
Modi government has focused on neighbouring countries from the beginning by inviting all SAARC leaders to his swearing-in ceremony.
Haque said both sides also agreed that the relation was “very good and it reached newer heights” in recent years. “It’ll go up by the day,” he said.
After meeting the foreign minister, Jaishankar met the Prime Minister’s adviser for international affairs, Gowher Rizvi, at the PM office. He is met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and handed over a letter from Indian Prime Minister Narendra modi. – News Desk
