A six-member advance team of India arrived in Dhaka on Tuesday to discuss logistics and security matters for the forthcoming visit of the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, to Bangladesh in September.
India's Special Protection Group chief Sudeep Lakhtakia is leading the team composed of senior officials from the Indian Prime Minister's Office, cabinet division and home and external affairs ministries.
The team recced the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel where Manmohan will stay during his two-day official visit beginning on September 6, according to government officials. They also held a meeting with the hotel officials.
The Indian team will also recce Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Bangabhaban, the Prime Minister's Office, the National Memorial at Savar and the Bangabandhu Museum at Dhanmondi, where Manmohan will go during the visit and the city roads he would be using, officials said.
The team will hold separate meetings with the director general of the Special Security Force, Major General Mia Md Jainul Abedin, and the chief of protocol of the foreign ministry, Brigadier General MAS Sadeque, they said.
They will discuss the entire range of security matters, protocols for the VVIP entourage and all type of logistical matters including transport, accommodation and food.
Singh will arrive in Dhaka at an invitation of his counterpart Sheikh Hasina at noon on September 6 and leave the country the next afternoon.
India will send more teams and vehicles to be used by the Indian prime minister and armoured vehicles to ensure fool-proof security several days ahead of Manmohan's arrival in Dhaka.
The two governments are working on finalizing the programme schedules, agenda for discussion, and agreements to be signed during the visit.
Manmohan will hold a bilateral meeting with Hasina in her office in the evening on September 6.
After the official talks, they would witness the signing of several agreements, memorandums of understanding and protocols between the two counties on using Chittagong and Mongla sea ports and roads and railway facilities in Bangladesh by India under transit arrangements, sharing the water of the Teesta and Feni rivers, power purchase by Bangladesh from India, liberalisation of trade for Bangladesh by India and settlement of disputes on undemarcated border, adversely possessed lands and enclaves and exclaves, according to government officials.
Manmohan is likely to give a lecture in the University of Dhaka in the morning on September 7. He will call on the president, Zillur Rahman, at Bangabhaban the same day.
The leader of opposition in parliament, Khaleda Zia, also the chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and the Jatiya Party chairman, HM Ershad, will separately call on Singh in his hotel suit.
Singh is likely to address a joint press conference with Hasina on the outcomes of the visit and bilateral relations.
Source : New Age
