Indian minister Jaishankar to visit Bangladesh on 4 March to review bilateral ties

External affairs minister S Jaishankar will visit Bangladesh on 4 March to prepare the ground for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip to the neighbouring country later next month.

Jaishankar will hold talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart AK Abdul Momen to review bilateral relations and discuss regional and international developments, people familiar with developments said on condition of anonymity.

PM Modi is set to visit Bangladesh on 26 March to join celebrations marking 50 years of the country's independence and of the establishment of diplomatic relations. The Indian premier was earlier scheduled to visit Dhaka in March last year but the trip was called off due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

New Delhi has worked to remove irritants in ties with Dhaka over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and sped up work on several connectivity and transit projects. Foreign secretary Harsh Shringla made his first foreign visit amid the pandemic to Dhaka in August last year and had handed over a personal message from Modi to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

During the virtual summit with Hasina on 17 December, Modi described Bangladesh as an important pillar of India's "Neighbourhood First" policy.

The two sides signed seven agreements at the summit in areas ranging from hydrocarbons to agriculture and revived a cross-border railway line that was snapped 55 years ago, giving a boost to connectivity initiatives and energy cooperation.

Bangladesh foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen visited India last month for foreign office consultations and India provided two million doses of the Covishield vaccine to Bangladesh under the "Vaccine Maitri" initiative.