Sushma Swaraj to visit Dhaka Oct 23-24

Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will pay a two-day official visit to Bangladesh to attend the fourth Bangladesh-India Joint Consultative Commission (JCC) meeting in Dhaka on October 23-24.

Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque informed journalists of the visit at a press conference in New Delhi yesterday after wrapping up his two-day visit there.

During his stay there, he had meetings with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on Thursday.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and his Indian counterpart Sushma will chair the JCC meeting.

Sushma was scheduled to visit Bangladesh in the first half of September, but it was postponed. 

This will be her second visit to Bangladesh. She first visited the country on June 25-27 in 2014 as the external affairs minister after the BJP came to power that year.

Diplomatic sources said the JCC meeting would review the implementation and progress of decisions made during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to India in April this year and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi's visit to Dhaka in June 2015.

The issue of Rohingya will come up prominently in the JCC meeting, they added.

Sushma earlier expressed India's full support to Bangladesh's stance on the Rohingya issue as international concern began to grow over the fate of the refugees.

The third JCC meeting was held in New Delhi on September 20 in 2014 when Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali led a 26-member delegation.