Dhaka: Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali left Dhaka for New Delhi on Tuesday morning on a three-day visit, the first high-level official visit from Bangladesh this year.

Although the Foreign Minister was invited to attend the ‘Raisina Dialogue’, he is likely to have a bilateral meeting with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj on the sidelines of the event, said a diplomatic source.

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is hosting the three-day first ‘Raisina Dialogue’ in collaboration with the Indian think tank Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

‘Raisina Dialogue’, visualised as India’s flagship international dialogue, will have more than 450 participants from around 40 countries, according to the MEA.

Focusing on the theme ‘Asia: Regional and Global Connectivity’, the dialogue will enable the MEA to reach out to a wider international multidisciplinary audience.

Bangladesh and India are also expected to hold bilateral talks in Kathmandu during the Saarc ministerial meeting in mid-March.

Other than Mahmood Ali and Sushma Swaraj, the other prominent speakers of the dialogue include Union Ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad, Piyush Goyal, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, US Pacific Commander Admiral Harry B Harris, former Sri Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga, UN Under Secretary General David Malone, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Yasumasa Nagamine and former Foreign Minister of China Li Zhaoxing.

The Foreign Minister will return home on Thursday