Dhaka: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Dhaka to participate in the celebration of 50th Independence Day of Bangladesh on March 26, 2021.
“We invited the Indian Prime Minister to visit Bangladesh on March 26 next year. It was accepted. We would love to see Indian PM Modi join our 50th anniversary of independence celebrations. Our victory means India’s victory as well. India will also celebrate our anniversary of independence,” said Dr. Momen interacting with journalists after meeting Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Vikram Doraiswamy.
The golden jubilee celebrations to be held from March 17-27 to mark Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan after the 1971 Liberation War also coincides with the birth centenary of Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Prime Minister Modi and four heads of state and government from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and the Maldives will be among the distinguished foreign guests to join the celebrations under separate schedules, Bangladesh government’s principal information officer Surath Kumar Sarkar told.
Prime Minister Modi will arrive on March 26 on a two-day visit and will join the main Independence Day celebrations that also marks 50 years of Bangladesh-India diplomatic relations.
Bangladesh had originally planned grand celebrations for the 50th years of Independence and Bangabandhu’s birth centenary but the coronavirus pandemic forced the country to revise the plan on health grounds.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who visited Bangladesh early this month, had said that Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Dhaka will be a “very memorable” one, as he described India’s strategic ties with Bangladesh as a truly “360 degree partnership”.