B’desh Premier Hasina to visit Nepal; Koirala to pay return visit!

January 31, 2001
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Kathmandu: Nepal and Bangladesh appear determined to give a real boost to their bilateral ties for the benefit of both the countries.

Indications to this effect were made already visible when the foreign ministers of Nepal and Bangladesh met early this month in Dhaka wherein they decided to enhance the trade, commerce and tourism business through the proper utilization of the Fulwari corridor which yet remained untapped to the extent it was expected.

Talking to the Telegraph Weekly last week, the Bangladesh Ambassador Cyril Sikder said that “our bilateral relations will take a new turn when the Prime Ministers of the two countries will exchange visits to each other’s countries in due course of time.

“Hopefully, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will pay an official visit to Nepal at the end of March this year which will be soon followed by the visit of Nepal’s Prime Minister to Dhaka”, said a beaming Ambassador Sikder.

According to the Bangladesh diplomat, a joint inaugural of the bus service will be initiated by the two Prime Ministers to facilitate the movement of the tourists as well as that of commodity in each other’s countries.

If this could be accomplished, about 200% of the cost and plenty of time could be saved for the transport of Nepali goods on its way to Mongla port, continued the Ambassador.

“‘Nepal’s Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala is supposed to inaugurate the container service from Mongla port to Kathmandu during his proposed trip to Dhaka.

Talking about the availability of facilities at Mongla port for the Nepali goods reaching there, the Ambassador made it amply clear that “all the modern facilities were available at Mongla port and we will leave no stone unturned for providing best of the facilities for Nepal and her exportable goods reaching Mongla”.

On a query pertaining to the resumption of the now suspended SAARC process, the Ambassador maintained that during the last meeting of the two foreign ministers this question had also come up during the discussion. “Both the countries were very much eager to resume the SAARC process even this year or early next year. In this regard my country is closely working with Nepal to resume the SAARC Summits as early as it could be made possible”, continued Ambassador Sikder.

According to Ambassador Sikder, the transport modalities that are yet to be signed in between the two countries, if signed shortly, would provide Nepal a golden opportunity to reach up to Thailand and Myanmar utilizing the Fulwari corridor. These two countries along with B’desh constitute BIMSTEC. Nepal, to recall, has been awarded only an observer status to this organization.

The transport modalities between Nepal and Bangladesh is expected to be signed shortly before B’desh Prime Minister arrives Nepal on an official level visit. The dates for the visit have yet to be announced.

If things go smoothly then this modality will come into operation by early March, 2001-it was learnt during the talks with Ambassador Sikder.