Vaccine diplomacy appears to be major agendum of Dhaka-Delhi talks

The issue of prospective Covid-19 vaccines appears to be a major agendum of Dhaka-New Delhi talks as two top foreign ministry bureaucrats of Bangladesh and India are set for their meeting on Wednesday.

"We will talk about trial possibilities of their (India) vaccine (being developed at Oxford University) here as we are continuing our discussion (regarding access to vaccine) with everyone," Bangladesh foreign secretary Masud bin Momen told media.

Masud said that Dhaka intended to pick one potential vaccine that would be safer and most useful for Bangladesh while "our efforts are on to get access of a potential Covid vaccine."

"It (vaccine) could be from China, Russia, USA or India . . . our discussion is underway with them all," he said.

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The Oxford University team appears to be a major forerunner for developing the vaccine against coronavirus which is set for trial in India.

Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla arrived here today on a two-day visit.

Masud said he was also expecting to discuss other bilateral issues like the recent development on transhipment and railway cooperation with India alongside the Rohingya crisis.

"We will update each other if there is any development regarding the Rohingya issue," he added.

Shringla's visit comes amid media speculations both in Bangladesh and India about new trend in regional diplomacy involving China while Bangladesh foreign minister Dr AK Abdul Momen recently called ties with Delhi was "rock solid".

"We must not compare the relationships. . . our tie with India is historic, rock solid; it is a blood relation while economic issues mainly fixed our relations with China," he said earlier this month.

Masud today substantiated the minister's comment saying there was no scope for speculations about ties with Delhi as Bangladesh-India ties remained "very deep".

But responding a question on such speculations in media Masud said that the issue would be raised in the meeting so no misleading news could hamper the intense Dhaka-Delhi ties.

"We will discuss how both the countries can discourage such misleading news in future," he added.

Masud's comments came as both Bangladesh foreign office and the Indian high commission visibly preferred not to elaborate on Shringla's tour.

"Foreign Secretary of India is on a visit to Dhaka from August 18-19, 2020 to discuss and take forward cooperation on matters of mutual interest," Indian high commission earlier today said in a brief statement after Shringla's arrival.

Masud, however, said his counterpart's Dhaka visit was not a "sudden" one and rather part of regular bilateral engagements.

Shringla, who was served as Indian High commission to Bangladesh before, visited Dhaka in March last after assuming office of the Indian Foreign Secretary in January this year.

According to officials this is Shringla's first overseas tour since the outbreak of the Covid-19 global pandemic.