In yet another high-level political contact between the two countries, Bangladesh Finance Minister Saifur Rahman will arrive in New Delhi on December 4 on a five-day visit to India.
The minister will attend an economic summit and interact with senior Indian leaders. Rahman will meet Finance Minister P Chidambaram, External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar. Rahman is also likely to call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The entire gamut of Indo-Bangladesh relations and the forthcoming SAARC meet in Dhaka are expected to come up during Rahman's interaction with Indian leaders amidst the possibilities of a fresh upswing in trade linkages between the two countries despite differences on security issues.
Bangladesh Commerce Minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury had recently visited India during which he made it clear that a bilateral free trade agreement was a question of time, a statement that has been welcomed in trade circles in New Delhi.
In fact, India has been pushing for such an accord. Kamal Nath, in turn, had assured that Bangladesh's concerns over tariff and non-tariff barriers to its exports to India would be addressed.
Rahman, an architect of economic reforms in Bangladesh, taking at times a lead in certain areas ahead of other South Asian countries, will speak at the economic summit on 'A New Dynamics in South Asian Economic Cooperation'.
He is also likely to have a luncheon meeting with industrialist Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Group, which plans to invest $2 billion in three key sectors of power, steel and fertiliser in Bangladesh.