Bangladeshi minister cancels participation in Raisina Dialogue 2020

Bangladesh Deputy Foreign Minister Shahriar Alam will not take part in the Raisina Dialogue 2020 slated to be held from January 14 to January 16 in New Delhi, diplomatic sources said on Saturday.

Sources added that the Alam cancelled his participation in the conference as he will be accompanying Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on her visit to Abu Dhabi.

The Raisina Dialogue is India's annual flagship platform on geo-politics and geo-economics. The conference is hosted by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs.

Alam is the third Bangladesh leader from Dhaka in recent weeks to cancel a visit to India.

Earlier, Bangladesh Foreign Minister A K Abdul Momen and Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan had cancelled their scheduled visits to India.

After Momen had cancelled his visit, the MEA had said that any speculation that the development was connected with the passage of Citizenship Amendment Bill was "unwarranted".

The Citizenship Amendment Act allows non-Muslim refugees who came to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before December 31, 2014 to have Indian citizenship.