Delhi ready to welcome Hasina

The much-awaited visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India will start today with the hope that the visit will be beneficial to both Bangladesh and India.
Security and connectivity related issues will dominate the talks, according to different ministry sources.
Dhaka and Delhi are on the same page combating fundamentalist forces like the HuJi, the JMB, Harkat-ul-Ansar and other organisations bent on violent extremism. There is now effective sharing of intelligence and border policing, unlike in the past.
Furthermore, there is a growing collaboration and cooperation in defence, with the goal of eliminating the threat of terrorism in both the countries. There are exchange programmes and joint exercises. While India would like to upgrade existing ties through a defence treaty, Bangladesh prefers to go slower, launching the exercise in small steps, in a more phased manner. Border guards of both countries are working to prevent smuggling and crimes along the border. Similarly, the seawater dispute was solved successfully. In the sea the navy and coastguards are working together on the basis of understanding.
There is huge media hype over the visit. As this is the first official visit of Sheikh Hasina to India in seven years. Moreover, the President of India had invited her to stay at the presidential palace. With this invitation, President Pranab Mukherjee showed great honour to the Bangladeshi Prime Minister.
Hasina will be welcomed with a red carpet reception. There will be a special state dinner in her honour.
Terming the visit very important Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said, "The relation between the two countries has reached a new height."
He recounted the invites extended to Bangladesh Prime Minister by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and later by President Pranab Mukherjee to not only visit India but also stay at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi during her visit.
"The India-Bangladesh relationship is for long time. We hope, the visit will bring some good, which will be beneficial for both of us. The two country's stance is about own interests. We will provide advantage, we will take advantage. This is the main subject," the Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Harsabardhon Sringla said.
The much-awaited meeting between Bangladesh's Prime Minister and Indian Prime Minister will be held on April 8, on the second day of her visit. Hasina will sit together with Modi at Hydrabad House at the summit conference and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is expected to attend.
According to the official statement, Hasina and Modi will discuss many issues that Bangladesh and India share for many years including high-technology, space, IT, electronics, security and civil nuclear energy. Deals will be made based on agreements out of those discussed issues.
Both India and Bangladesh are confident that some of the most talked about issues may be resolved during the visit. Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar visited Bangladesh in late February in connection of the visit.
India had sent Bangladesh a list of 41 agreements, which senior Foreign Ministry officials of both the countries had discussed. Of these, nearly a dozen are expected to be signed during the visit that had been delayed at least twice since December last year.
Bangladesh and India will ink 33 to 35 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) this time apart from military ties and Teesta agreement, information and broadcasting, civil nuclear research, geological science, third line of credit by India and power and fuel development will also come up at the bilateral meeting.
As per schedule the opposition leader of India, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi will make a courtesy call on Sheikh Hasina. On that very day the Prime Minister, at a function, will hand over prestigious mementos to the families of the Indian war heroes who sacrificed their lives in Bangladesh War of Liberation in 1971.
This time Bangladesh wants to solve water sharing issues with India with enacting a joint river management treaty, corridor from India to import cheap hydropower from Nepal and Bhutan and stop support to Bangladesh's terrorist and extremists in bordering areas.
Bangladesh will also recall Modi government's support in resolving several longstanding issues including land boundary agreement.
Bangladesh also supported India in rooting out separatist Indian insurgent organisations like Ulfa, the NDFB and so on, from its soil. It has dismantled most of their illegal camps.
"The two Prime Ministers came to such an epoch making decision so that the youth of the two countries particularly be benefited," the Indian High Commissioner said.
 Awami League leaders have said they are optimistic that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's upcoming visit to India will further strengthen ties between the two neighbouring nations.