- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIAN president Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday (15) reached Bangladesh to attend the country’s 50th Victory Day celebrations as the guest of honour. It was on December 16, 1971, that the neighbouring country achieved victory over Pakistani forces in the Bangladesh Liberation War. India played a key role in helping it becoming free.
Kovind, who was received by his Bangladeshi counterpart Abdul Hamid and prime minister Sheikh Hasina upon his arrival in Dhaka, the country’s capital. His visit will conclude on Friday (17).
“This visit is in context of 50th Victory Day celebrations in Dhaka at which Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid has invited President Kovind to represent India as a guest of honour,” Indian foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Tuesday (14) during a press briefing.
This is Kovind’s maiden visit to Bangladesh since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic.
Shringla said the Indian president’s visit to Dhaka gives an opportunity to New Delhi to renew its bonds with the eastern neighbour. The diplomat added that the relations between the two nations are based on a shared geographical space, heritage, history and shared experience of India’s support to Bangladesh during its liberation war in 1971.
“It is also an occasion to take note of the width, depth, vitality and dynamism of the contemporary ties,” Shringla said.
During the visit, Kovind will hold a delegation-level meeting with Hamid.
Meanwhile, the Indian external affairs ministry said in a press release that Hasina and foreign minister Dr A K Abdul Momen are scheduled to call upon the Indian president.
It may be noted here that Indian prime minister Narendra Modi visited Bangladesh for a two-day visit on March 26 this year on the occasion of the country’s 50 years of independence and the birth centenary of its founder and late president and prime minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of the current prime minister Hasina.
