Zakir Hossain
India’s High Commissioner-designate to Bangladesh, Dinesh Trivedi, on Thursday said India and Bangladesh could emerge as among the strongest democracies and world powers together, as he prepared to take up his diplomatic assignment in Dhaka.
Speaking to the media after visiting Netaji Bhavan in Kolkata, a day before his scheduled arrival in Bangladesh, Trivedi said, “With 140 crore of India and another 20 crore of our brothers and sisters from Bangladesh, we will absolutely be achieving whatever we want to achieve in the world.”
“Together with the people of Bangladesh, we can emerge as the strongest democracies and one of the strongest world powers. That is what we are going to achieve. We are going to do it together,” he said.
Trivedi said he was coming to Bangladesh with “a lot of energy and good wishes from 160 crore people of India and Bangladesh” and expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the people of India for entrusting him with the responsibility.
“I am very, very happy and I am grateful to the Prime Minister, the people of this country, for giving me such a responsibility and putting faith in me,” he said.
Trivedi is scheduled to arrive in Dhaka on Friday through the Petrapole-Benapole land port, diplomatic sources said. He will be accompanied by his wife, Mrinal Trivedi. He replaces Pranay Kumar Verma, who has joined the Indian embassy in Belgium and the European Union as ambassador.
The veteran politician recently received his Letters of Credence from President Droupadi Murmu after the Ministry of External Affairs announced his appointment as India’s next High Commissioner to Bangladesh on April 27.
Trivedi, a senior BJP leader, earlier served as Union Minister for Railways and Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare during the UPA government as a member of the Trinamool Congress. He resigned from the TMC in February 2021 and joined the BJP the following month.
In May, Trivedi met Indian Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi and discussed issues of mutual interest, including border security, defence ties and military-to-military cooperation between India and Bangladesh.