Sushma Swaraj holds talks with Bangladesh Foreign Minister

Dhaka: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday held talks with her Bangladeshi counterpart Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali on key bilateral issues, including Land Boundary Agreement and proposed Teesta river water sharing deal. 


The External Affairs Minister who was assisted by Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh also raised the matter of illegal immigration with Ali.
Sushma will be meeting Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina later today. 

Sushma, who on Wednesday evening arrived in Dhaka on a two-day visit to Bangladesh, will also be visiting Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief Khaleda Zia and Jatiya Party leader Rowshan Ershad on Friday.
Though there are no pacts to be signed and no big outcome expectations, the trip, which is termed as a "goodwill" visit, is aimed at taking forward the bilateral ties which are on a "positive trajectory" for past few years. 

The visit is expected to see two key outstanding issues taken up - the Teesta water sharing deal and the Land Boundary Agreement -- both of which have been hanging fire. 

Today evening, the Indian External Affairs Minister will have an engagement with think tanks, chambers of commerce and industry and cultural organisations. She is to deliver a lecture on Bangladesh-India relations at an event to be organised by the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS). 

This is Sushma's first stand-alone foreign visit after becoming the minister. She had accompanied Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his first official visit to Bhutan earlier this month.