Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque has expressed optimism that the Teesta water sharing agreement will be signed during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India in the first half of April. “We are hopeful,” he told reporters last night after holding a bilateral meeting with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar at a hotel in the capital when asked if the agreement, which was supposed to be signed over five years ago, would be signed during the visit of the prime minister. To another question on the hope of signing the agreement during the visit, the top diplomat emphatically replied, “Absolutely”.
When asked if the Indians have completed the internal preparations in this regard, he said, “They will tell you what they are doing. I cannot say what they are doing. We are still hopeful.”
Replying to a question on military cooperation agreement and purchase of arms from India, Haque said, “All the matters have been discussed. Military cooperation is one of the issues. Therefore this has also been discussed.”
When asked if Bangladesh is going to purchase arms from India, he said, “I don’t want to comment on this matter.”
The foreign secretary also expressed hope that border killings will be brought down to zero.
“All the issues including the Teesta water sharing agreement and border killing have been discussed,” he said, reminding that this visit of the Indian foreign secretary is intended for setting date and agenda for discussion between
Prime Minister Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and in this regard his meeting with the Indian foreign secretary has been successful.
When asked to elaborate about the agenda, he said, “Everything, including Teesta and border killing, will be in the agenda. We have 8-10 clusters like energy cooperation, connectivity, trade, border issues and consular issues”
Upon insistence, the foreign secretary would not disclose the date, saying, “You will know when we will jointly announce the date.”
He revealed that a significant number of agreements on various sectors are expected to be signed during the visit.
“We hope it will be a good visit. The beginning has been very good,” he said.
About new areas of cooperation, Haque said, “We have talked talk about new ideas on connectivity. We will see how fruitful it gets.”
When asked to elaborate, he said, “We have not come to a position to elaborate further.”
About Ganges Barrage, Haque said that this issue has been discussed and the Indians are positive about it.
A joint working group set up between the two countries will hopefully sit soon to work out the modalities, he said.
When his attention was drawn to the fact that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has withdrawn the state’s representative from the group, Haque said, “It is their internal matter. I will not comment on that.”  
He also said that the earlier postponements of Hasina’s visit have nothing to do with the Teesta agreement rather there were other reasons, which he did not disclose.
Meanwhile, according to a press release issued by the foreign ministry, the Indian foreign secretary, during his meeting with the prime minister, conveyed the invitation of the Indian Prime Minister Modi for a state visit in April.
He also reiterated Indian government’s support to a peaceful, stable and prosperous Bangladesh.
The prime minister appreciated India’s cooperation in various important sectors including power and energy, capacity building and development partnership.
During the bilateral meeting between the two foreign secretaries, the agenda and programme of the forthcoming state visit of Hasina to India were discussed.
They also reviewed the whole range of issues of mutual interest. They expressed satisfaction at the progress of existing cooperation between the two countries and agreed to further deepen the cooperation across some new and innovative areas.
Indian Foreign Secretary Jaishankar was scheduled to leave Dhaka this morning.
According to a press release by the Indian high commission in Dhaka, Jaishankar, during the visit, discussed preparatory aspects of the proposed visit of Hasina to India.
The two foreign secretaries reviewed the areas of bilateral cooperation between the two countries. Both sides noted with appreciation that there has been excellent implementation of decisions taken during Modi’s visit to Bangladesh in June 2015.
Both sides also took stock of decisions taken during the recent meetings of various bilateral mechanisms in the areas of security & border management, trade and commerce, power, energy, shipping, railways etc.
Both foreign secretaries also shared their perspectives on regional and international issues of mutual interest.