NEW DELHI, Apr 8: General MM Naravane, Chief of the Indian Army Staff (COAS), reached Dhaka on Thursday on a five-day visit to Bangladesh. General Naravane’s visit coincides with the Swarnim Vijay Varsh celebrations.
According to the Indian Embassy in Dhaka, the COAS will be accompanied by his wife and a two-member delegation on the invitation of Bangladesh Army Chief Gen Aziz Ahmed. The visits come less than two weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Bangladesh.
The army headquarter in a tweet stated “General MM Naravane #COAS proceeded on a five day visit to #Bangladesh. The visit aims to further enhance the defence cooperation and strong bilateral ties between #India and #Bangladesh.”
The Press Information Bureau said during his visit the Army Chief will pay tribute to the Liberation War martyrs by laying a wreath at the Shikha Anirban on April 8, 2021, followed by a one-on-one meeting with Bangladesh’s Armed Forces’ three Service Chiefs including paying a tribute to Bangladesh’s founding father at the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Memorial Museum in Dhanmondi.
The COAS will also meet Bangladesh Foreign Minister and attend a seminar on UN Peace Support Operations and deliver a keynote address on the “Changing Nature of Global Conflicts: Role of UN Peacekeepers.”
The COAS will also meet the Force Commanders of the United Nations Missions in Mali, South Sudan, and Central African Republic, as well as the Deputy Chief Operations Officer of the Royal Bhutanese Army. He will be attending the closing ceremony of Exercise Shantir Ogrosena, a multilateral counterterrorism exercise involving the Armed Forces of India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka, as well as observers from the United States, the United Kingdom, Turkey, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, among others.
During the final leg of his tour, the COAS will meet the representatives of the Bangladesh Institute of Peace Support and Training Operations (BIPSOT). \
(Venkatesh Iyer)