Pak, Bangladesh resume foreign secy talks after 15 yrs; Delhi takes note

India on Thursday said it has taken note of the growing diplomatic engagement between Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Addressing reporters during a weekly media briefing here, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “Yes we have taken note of it.”

India’s reaction comes after Bangladesh and Pakistan resumed foreign secretary-level talks — Foreign Office Consultation (FOC) — in Dhaka today. This kind of diplomatic engagement between Pakistan and Bangladesh has happened after 15 years as both nations look to reset their bilateral ties.

The FOC talks began between Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch and Bangladesh’s Foreign Secretary Md Jashim Uddin.

This renewed diplomatic outreach between Pakistan and Bangladesh follows the fall of the Awami League government led by Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh after unprecedented student protests erupted over reservation row last year.

Following the FOC talks, Pakistan’s Secretary Baloch is scheduled to meet with Bangladesh’s interim government chief Muhammad Yunus and Foreign Affairs Adviser Touhid Hossain.

She will also attend a roundtable with local think tanks and members of the Pakistani diaspora in Dhaka later in the evening today.

The consultation comes ahead of the expected visit of Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar to Dhaka on April 27-28 — the first such high-level visit in over a decade.

At the FOC talks, Bangladesh raised “historically unresolved issues” and sought a public apology from Pakistan over the 1971 atrocities. Dhaka also asked Pakistan to pay USD 4.3 billion as its share from the combined assets at the time when East Pakistan split from Pakistan in 1971 to form an independent Bangladesh.

“We have raised the historically unresolved issues with Pakistan,” Bangladesh foreign secretary Jashim Uddin told reporters after the Foreign Office Consultation (FOC) with his visiting Pakistani counterpart Amna Baloch.

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