M Humayun Kabir: The bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on the sidelines of BIMSTEC Summit is going to be held in Kathmandu this evening.
Hasina will leave for Kathmandu this morning to attend the fourth BIMSTEC summit that envisages a “peaceful, prosperous and sustainable” Bay of Bengal”, said State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam.
He was briefing reporters on the visit at the foreign ministry yesterday, reports bdnews24.com.
Apart from other regional leaders, the prime minister is also expected to meet the Indian prime minister, the state minister said.
Alam said those meetings would provide a way to discuss bilateral issues.
BIMSTEC is consisting of five South Asia countries — Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka and two Southeast Asian countries — Myanmar and Thailand.
Sheikh Hasina will speak soon after the inaugural speech of the BIMSTEC chair which is Nepal, said the state minister.
They are expecting the signing of two MoUs during the summit – one is to establish BIMSTEC grid interconnection and the other is on BIMSTEC convention on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters.
It is unlikely that the Rohingya issue will be discussed at the main summit, he said.
But there will be a retreat session apart from the formal summit where the leaders can discuss the issue, he added.
A joint declaration will come at the end of the summit.
Sri Lanka will take the charge of the next chair from Nepal.
Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali is in Kathmandu now to attend the foreign ministers’ meeting yesterday before the summit.
The prime minister will return tomorrow evening.
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