Day after oath, Jaishankar meets leaders of Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bangladesh

Jaishankar, who is set to return to the external affairs ministry, met the leaders a day after they participated in PM Modi’s oath ceremony

Updated on: Jun 10, 2024, 14:36:01 IST

By Rezaul H Laskar

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NEW DELHI: Union minister S Jaishankar met Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu on Monday to discuss bilateral relations and ways to deepen regional cooperation.

Union minister S Jaishankar met the three visiting leaders of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives (X/DrSJaishankar)

Jaishankar, who is set to return to the external affairs ministry, met the leaders a day after they participated in the ceremony where Prime Minister Narendra Modi was sworn in for a third term. Besides these three leaders, leaders of Bhutan, Mauritius, Nepal and Seychelles were also invited to the inauguration.

People familiar with the matter described Muizzu’s participation in the ceremony as significant as it reflected the desire of the Maldivian leadership to engage with India after a period when bilateral relations dipped to a fresh low. Muizzu, who was elected last year on the back of an “India Out” campaign, had demanded the withdrawal of Indian military personnel deployed in the Maldives soon after assuming office.

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“Delighted to call on President Dr Mohamed Muizzu of Maldives today in New Delhi. Look forward to India and Maldives working together closely,” Jaishankar said in a post on X after his meeting.

Images of the banquet hosted by President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday night showed Muizzu seated next to Modi.

In a similar post after his meeting with Hasina, Jaishankar said the “India-Bangladesh Maitri [friendship] continues to advance”. A Bangladeshi official described the meeting as unstructured and said the two sides reviewed the overall relationship.

Following his meeting with Wickremesinghe, Jaishankar said on X: “Recognized the steady progress in India-Sri Lanka relations.”

The people cited above said on condition of anonymity that no structured bilateral meetings between Modi and the visiting leaders were planned because of the prime minister’s domestic travel plans.

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Following the swearing-in ceremony, Modi met the visiting leaders in a group at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. He also held separate and brief one-on-one meetings with all of them, though the people said there were no substantive discussions.

While thanking the leaders for participating in the ceremony, Modi reaffirmed India’s commitment to its “Neighbourhood First” policy and “SAGAR” vision or Security and Growth for All in the Region, according to a statement from the external affairs ministry.

Modi said that in his third term, India will “continue to work for the peace, progress and prosperity of the region in close partnership with the countries, even as it pursues its goal of Viksit Bharat by 2047”. In this context, he sought deeper people-to-people ties and connectivity in the region.

India, he said, will “continue to amplify the voice of the Global South in the international arena”.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rezaul H Laskar
Rezaul Hasan Laskar is Foreign Editor with the Hindustan Times, which he joined in 2015. He began as a journalist in his hometown of Shillong in northeast India and has worked in newspapers and wire services over the years. He moved to New Delhi in 1997 and initially focused on defence, national security, Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, while also working of foreign policy and international relations. He has been part of the media delegation accompanying PMs on foreign visits and has reported from destinations ranging from Tibet to Ukraine. Between 2007 and 2013, he was the Press Trust of India correspondent in Pakistan, one of only two Indian journalists allowed to report from the country. He extensively covered Pakistan’s domestic politics and the life of the common people, as well as the fallout of the 2008 Mumbai attacks on India-Pakistan relations and the subsequent trial in Pakistan of the suspects involved in the attack. As part of his reportage in Pakistan, he travelled the breadth of the country, from the Swat Valley to Balochistan. Reza’s first gig in journalism was writing a weekly music column, and music – especially classic rock – remains a keen interest. He is also a movie buff and a keen photographer.Read More

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