Sheikh Hasina and Narendra Modi will meet in August.

Staff Reporter:>>>

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is likely to meet her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi in the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu in August.

The two premiers will meet on the sidelines of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Summit to be held in Kathmandu on August 30-31.

The seven heads of state and government of the BIMSTEC nations will join the summit, diplomatic sources in New Delhi said on Tuesday.Apart from Bangladesh and Indian premiers, Bhutan Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, Myanmar President Win Myint, Nepal Prime Minister KP Oli, Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena and Thailand Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha are expected to attend the summit.

The Indian prime minister is likely to have talks with the Myanmar president on the sidelines of the summit. The Rohingya issue may come up for discussion at the talks.

Indian Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj earlier said that Myanmar has to repatriate the Rohingya people from Bangladesh in the next two years.

Sheikh Hasina met her Indian counterpart four times in the last one year. She last met Narendra Modi at a function at Shantiniketan of West Bengal on May 25. Earlier on May 20, the duo held bilateral talks on the sidelines of Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London.

Sources said the upcoming meeting between the two leaders will be the last one prior to the national election in Bangladesh.BIMSTEC Summit, which was scheduled to be held in March, has been deferred to August.

Modi greeted the fellow leaders and people of the member states of the BIMSTEC on the occasion of the 21st anniversary of the regional bloc that falls on June 6.

“Greetings to the fellow leaders and citizens of BIMSTEC nations on its 21st anniversary,” Modi tweeted.

“Our shared values will further strengthen our friendship and cooperation, and pave the way for heightened development of this region which is among the youngest and fastest growing economies of the world,” he said.

The BIMSTEC came into existence on June 6, 1997 through the Bangkok Declaration.

The main objective of the body is technical and economic cooperation among South Asian and Southeast Asian countries along the rim of the Bay of Bengal.With the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) virtually getting ineffective largely due to non-cooperation on the part of Pakistan in a number of areas, India has been giving more importance to BIMSTEC in recent times.

BIMSTEC brings together 1.5 billion people or 21 percent of the world’s population and has a combined GDP of $2.5 trillion.