By IANS
New Delhi : Saying India was obsessed with Pakistan, a former foreign secretary of Bangladesh has urged New Delhi to appoint a junior foreign minister to deal exclusively with Dhaka.
Farooq Sobhan told a meeting at the Observer Research Foundation here that India was not according much priority to its populous eastern neighbour.
“You have two ministers of state (MoS) in the ministry of external affairs. You need one more MoS, for Bangladesh,” Sobhan said, speaking at a talk on “India-Bangladesh Relations: Past, Present and Future”.
The former diplomat felt that India was “obsessed with Pakistan” and that this marginalized Bangladesh, which he said was more important geo-politically.
Noting that there was enormous scope for improving trade between the two countries, Sobhan said: “It was a sad day for Bangladesh when the planned huge investment by Tatas, in which I was very much interested, did not materialise”.
He suggested various measures to improve relations between the two countries including a more liberal visa policy.