Shringla's Surprise Visit Just for the Vaccine!

While Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla's sudden visit to Dhaka has aroused much curiosity, questions remain about what happened in the end.

The visit was important for India considering China's war situation with India on the Ladakh border, "negative" propaganda on Bangladesh-India relations through Indian media, and Chinese investment in Bangladesh. But the question is, what did Bangladesh get, or is there any new message from India for Bangladesh?

Harshvardhan Shringlas's meeting with Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Masood Bin Momen on Thursday was the highlight of the visit. He also met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Later, The Indian foreign secretary also spoke to civil society and journalists

The issue that is being discussed here is that India will give the corona vaccine to Bangladesh on a priority basis. But the vaccine is not an Indian invention, they are talking about the Oxford vaccine. An organization in India is associated with this vaccine. There has been talks of a trial in Bangladesh which we have already agreed to. Although the trial of the Chinese vaccine is stuck.

Apart from this, air bubble, border killings, Rohingya issue, economic and medical cooperation during the pandemic, the role of Indian media - all these issues were discussed at the Foreign Secretary-level.

The Foreign Minister of Bangladesh was not in Dhaka but in his village home in Sylhet. As a result, Shringla did not meet him and the issues of his meeting with the Prime Minister are not known at the moment.

However, Reva Ganguly Das, India's ambassador to the country, said in a briefing after meeting Shringla with the Prime Minister on Tuesday evening that "Shringla is visiting Dhaka to convey the message that Bangladesh and India have deep ties and India will always stand by Bangladesh to be a partner in development."

He added, "India has a special and close relationship with Bangladesh." That is why the Foreign Secretary has come to meet the Prime Minister even during this epidemic. "

Meanwhile, after a meeting between the foreign secretaries of the two countries on Thursday, Bangladesh's foreign secretary Masood bin Momen said, "We have discussed in detail how to move forward the economic and other issues during this pandemic period." ''We have also discussed the unpleasant things about us. I have discussed border killings. Next month we will try to hold a meeting at the  BGB and BSF Director General level. The number of border killings has risen sharply in the first seven months of this year, and we are concerned about that. "

However, the diplomats of Bangladesh thought that this visit would be more important. They think that in fact an 'NIG' situation has been created with India on the China issue. To overcome that, the Indian Foreign Secretary came to Dhaka suddenly. In particular, Chinese investment in Bangladesh and some other Chinese benefits for Bangladesh make India 'concerned'. However, it is not clear whether the situation has ended during this visit. But the diplomats think that it is understood that India is giving importance to Bangladesh. Former Ambassador Major General (retd) Shahidul Haque thinks, "Neighbors' relations with India are bad now. They are under pressure in many ways. So India may want to develop relations. But it is not clear how much progress has been made on this tour. Because it is not yet clear what message Narendra Modi has brought to the Prime Minister. "

"From meeting the prime minister to not meeting the foreign minister, I think we have not received a clear message," he said. I think what the two foreign secretaries said about Corona Vaccine and other things was a courtesy call. We have not seen any agreement or joint statement. "

Former Foreign Secretary. Touhid Hossain thinks, what is wrong if India gives the corona vaccine to Bangladesh first? This is a success. It is better if Bangladesh gets the corona vaccine first. However, he did not consider it a "routine discussion". "I don't think it's a matter of routine discussions to move to Dhaka with a sudden decision the day before," he said. There is a secret inside it. Maybe he has brought a message to normalize the current situation in Bangladesh and India. Even then, I guess, because we don't know what he talked about with the Prime Minister, whether he came up with a message. We will not know if it is not disclosed. "

According to him, "it is not clear how much the situation has improved." What India expects may not be fulfilled I don't think anything is normal."

Source: DW Bangla
Translator: Apurbo Roy