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| Sunday, 7 August 2005 |
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Indian FM to visit Dhaka NEW DELHI, Aug 6 (AFP) - (Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh will visit Bangladesh at the weekend to bolster unsteady ties between the neighbours and prepare the ground for a South Asian summit in Dhaka later this year, the foreign ministry said. The two-day trip will be a precursor to a visit to Dhaka of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the 13th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit slated for November, a ministry statement said. "The minister's visit takes place in the context of our commitment to improve and strengthen our relations with neighbouring countries and will provide an opportunity to review and assess all aspects of the bilateral relationship," the statement said. Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said: "I think his visit is a very important part of the buildup to the SAARC summit. That is how I would like to categorise it." The visit comes after a cooling of relations following India's collapsing of the summit which had initially been planned for February. India pulled out of the meeting citing security fears after a grenade attack on an opposition party rally in Dhaka which killed five people in January and sparked a protest strike. SAARC groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The summit was set for February 6-7 but was rescheduled to November after India's withdrawal. The Indian foriegn ministry statement said ties had improved in recent months. During his stay, Singh would call on Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and Finance Minister Saifur Rahman and hold talks with his counterpart M. Morshed Khan. |
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