Foreign secretary S. Jaishankar will embark on a three nation tour this month, covering neighbourhood countries with whom India shares dynamic relations.
He will reach Sri Lanka on February 18, move on to China on February 22 and visit Bangladesh on February 23.
The Sri Lanka visit (February 18 to 20) is important, given that it will help sustain the momentum of boost in bilateral ties since new governments took over in both countries.
Discussions will range from prospective tie-ups in a host of areas from highways to hydrocarbons, as well as the various decisions taken jointly by both countries.
While ties with Sri Lanka are on a definite upswing, the island nation has made it clear on several ocassions that, while it will give first preference wherever possible to India, its needs are enormous and it will not make a commitment to an 'India Only' policy.
The country's cabinet has approved a deal to lease 80 percent of Hambantota port to a Chinese firm — for 99 years at $1.12 billion. The decision has been a cause of concern for India as well as the US, given that it gives China easy access to sea routes in south Asia.
Sri Lanka did emphasise that it would not allow anyone to use its territory for an anti-India initiative. Yet, Jaishankar has his work cut out as he heads to Colombo — he needs to sort out several such hiccups while taking forward the bilateral ties.
While at Beijing, he will participate in the first meeting of the India-China Strategic Dialogue to be co-chaired by India's foreign secretary and the executive vice foreign minister of China. This dialogue mechanism is the result of a decision for continuous and involved interaction — the outcome of Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi's visit to India last August.
Ministry of external affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup said “all issues of mutual interest in the bilateral, regional and international domain” would be discussed. Here again, apart from existing issues with China, there are emerging areas of friction as well as joint concern.
China has accused India of playign with fire for hosting a Taiwanese delegation, though the MEA was quick to respond that it was an informal group of academics, businessmen and legislators. “Such informal groups have visited India in the past for business, religious and tourist purposes. I understand they will do so to China as well. There is nothing unusual about such visits and political meanings should not be read into them," Swarup said.
The new government in the US, India's pending membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group are among the other topics of “mutual interest in the international domain”.
The last leg of the journey is Dhaka — on the invitation of Bangladesh foreign secretary Mohammed Shahidul Haque — and is aimed at reviewing areas of bilateral cooperation. Swarup did drop a hint, without actually taking names, that there might be discussion on a long pending visit of Bangladeshi Prime minister Sheikh Hasina to India.