India is sending its External Affairs Minister SM Krishna on a two-day visit to Bangladesh on July 6 to do the spadework for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's upcoming visit.
On his maiden visit to Bangladesh, Krishna will have talks with Foreign Minister Dipu Moni and call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to discuss the outstanding bilateral issues, said foreign ministry officials.
The top agenda of his visit will be Teesta river water-sharing agreement and land boundary issues, which include demarcation of 6.5 kilometres boundary, transfer of enclaves and adversely possessed territories, added the officials.
Report from New Delhi said bridging trade deficit and enhanced security cooperation will be among issues that are to come up in Krishna's deliberations with Bangladeshi top leaders.
Diplomatic sources said Krishna's visit is likely to be followed by those of Indian Water Resources Minister Salman Khursheed and Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram in the next two months.
Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, who visited Dhaka on June 6-7 to attend a Foreign Secretary-level consultation, announced that Manmohan Singh's trip to Bangladesh will take place well before the end of the year.
While other diplomatic sources said Singh will most probably visit Bangladesh in September, after the monsoon session of Indian Parliament.
Dhaka and Delhi will witness a flurry of diplomatic movements to prepare the groundwork for Singh's visit. There will also be counter visits from Bangladesh side, said foreign ministry officials.
Manmohan Singh last visited Dhaka to participate in the SAARC summit in 2005 and is yet to reciprocate a bilateral visit with Prime Minister Hasina's trip to Delhi in January, 2010. Singh's upcoming visit would be his maiden visit to Bangladesh since the Awami League government assumed office.
Earlier on June 7, during the foreign office-level consultation in Dhaka, foreign secretaries of the two countries expressed firm optimism about signing of agreements on sharing Teesta river water and boundary demarcation during Manmohan Singh's visit.
During Hasina's visit to India a year and a half ago, she talked with Singh on issues including Teesta water-sharing, border haats, cooperation in power sector, connectivity and trade.
The visit had also seen India announcing a $1 billion line of credit for a slew of development projects, mostly related to rail and infrastructure sectors in Bangladesh, and signing of three crucial bilateral agreements on enhanced security cooperation.
However, there is a sense of disquiet in Dhaka about the slowdown in the tempo of Indo-Bangladesh relations created by Hasina's visit and Bangladesh expects India to reciprocate adequately with the cooperation of Hasina's government in handing the top Ulfa leadership over to New Delhi.
Diplomatic sources said there is a feeling in Dhaka and New Delhi that not much substantive has been done to sustain the momentum in relations generated by that visit of Hasina and that the countries must move faster.