NEWDELHI: After a series of border incidents, and Mamata Banerjee continuing to rock the boat, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna will be travelling to Dhaka this month, with the message that India will fulfill its commitment in boosting bilateral ties.
Krishna will be travelling to Bangladesh on February 15, though officials said that the date has not been confirmed.
“This will be more on the lines of a confidence-building measure, to tell the Bangladesh Prime Minister that relations were on course,” said a diplomatic source. There had been a surge in optimism in India-Bangladesh relations after Sheikh Hasina visited India in August 2010, and when India offered its biggest-ever soft loan to a foreign government to the tune of $1 billion. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made his much-awaited visit on September 6-7 last year, but the visit was overshadowed by the last-minute withdrawal from the delegation by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
She had put her foot down on the signing of a Teesta river water sharing agreement, expressing her unhappiness on her state’s share.