Foreign Minister Dipu Moni has left Dhaka for New Delhi on Sunday to join the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) of foreign ministers.
According to her office, she flew out at 4.15pm.
She will stay in Delhi on Monday and Tuesday from where she will go to Colombo for the Commonwealth meeting.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to join the Commonwealth Heads meeting from Nov 15 to Nov 17.
Dipu Moni might resign along with other Awami League ministers soon to allow Prime Minister Hasina to form an all-party interim government to oversee the elections.
During the current Awami League led government, the relationship with the neighbouring India is often described as the ‘the best’ of all times with number of high-level visits between the two countries.
India also for the first time rolled out a $1 billion line of credits including $ 200 million in grants for Bangladesh.
India says it is not on the ‘same page’ with US about Bangladesh, suggesting they have different preferences.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh conveyed his concerns of political ‘violence and growing radicalisation’ in Bangladesh to the US President Barack Obama who took it seriously and asked his officials to ‘ramp up consultations’ with India on how to tackle the crisis in Bangladesh.
In this context, the Moni-Khurshid meeting is seen crucial by the analysts with enough indication now that the Hasina administration is determined to hold the polls before the constitutional deadline of Jan 24.
But Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh is not going.
The ruling Congress has told him to cancel the visit in deference to Tamil sentiments.
But Indian foreign minister Salman Khurshid will represent India.
Officials in Dhaka expect Dipu Moni to have a bilateral meeting with Khurshid before both leave for Colombo.
If so, it might be the last meeting between the two ministers before polls in both countries. – bdnews24.com
