Jaishankar calls on Hasina ahead of bilateral meet

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Saturday called on visiting Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ahead of a bilateral meeting with her counterpart Narendra Modi later in the day during which the two sides were expected to ink major agreements, with a focus on connectivity.

The two sides are likely to sign six to seven MoUs in the areas of connectivity, capacity-building and culture after the talks at the Hyderabad House here.

"The bilateral relations have never been so close. Naturally, the focus of discussion will be on bilateral relationship. When I say bilateral relationship, we are talking about the next steps the two countries should take now to get the relationship in a different trajectory," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said at a briefing on Friday.

The talks would revolve around trade and connectivity, development cooperation and people to people connect, culture and other issues of mutual interest.

The two sides were also expected to ink another agreement for the supply of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from Bangladesh to India's northeast.

Omera Petroleum and Beximco LPG will export LPG to the state-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), which will bottle and sell to consumers

Another likely deal was for a new waterway to connect the Meghna river in Bangladesh with the Gomati in Tripura.