Face of Nation : During his four-day visit, Singh will hold bilateral discussions with Admiral Aurangzeb Chowdhury, Chief of the Naval Staff of Bangladesh Navy, Service chiefs and other senior government officials, according to a statement by the Indian Defence Ministry.
Admiral Singh’s visit to Bangladesh takes place ahead of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s official visit to India from October 3, when the two sides are likely to discuss cooperation in defence sector, our New Delhi correspondent reports.
During Hasina’s previous visit to India in April, 2017, New Delhi had for the first time announced a $500 million line of credit for Bangladesh to source defence hardware from India.
Hasina’s talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 5 during her forthcoming visit to Delhi may cover how to take forward the defence cooperation between Bangladesh and India.
Indian Navy chief will be taken on a conducted tour of the Khulna Shipyard Limited, Bangladesh Navy’s bases in Chattogram and Khulna. He will address the cadets at the Bangladesh Naval Academy (BNA). He will also participate in the first anniversary celebration of Bangladesh Institute of Maritime Research and Development (BIMRAD), the Defence Ministry statement said.
The Bangladesh Navy is an active member of Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) and is a member of all three working groups–Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR), Maritime Security and ‘Information Sharing and Interoperability’.
The Indian Navy regularly interacts with Bangladesh Navy through the medium of staff talks, annual defence dialogue and other operational interactions which includes port visits, passage exercises, training, ship design and ship-building cooperation besides regular participation by Indian Navy’s serving and retired officers in Victory Day celebrations held in Bangladesh to commemorate the Liberation War of 1971.
