The Bhutanese Prime Minister's visit this week was a masterclass in how effective leadership can allow a country to punch above its weight on the international stage - even in bilateral settings. Over the course of his 4-day (just about) stay in Bangladesh, including an expedition in Mymensingh that probably stands out for the most memorable public engagement we have witnessed between a visiting dignitary and the Bangladeshi people for a long time.

By the time he left the country, it would've been difficult to find a single person in Bangladesh he had failed to charm, with his upright manner, his energy and intelligence, and perhaps most refreshing of all, his humility. He did have some prior advantages, a pretty major one actually. Anyone who has attended college away from home can tell you about the special place reserved in one's heart for wherever it may be - campuses abroad are often located way out in the boondocks away from big cities. In any case, Mymensingh certainly doesn't figure in anyone's list of hottest or even just well-known university towns.

Yet it was there in its eponymous medical college that Dr Tshering learned his chops on his way to becoming a urologist, completing the 7-year MBBS degree in 1996. Thereafter he spent another four years in Dhaka undergoing further training in the medical sciences. He breaks into Bangla without much visible effort. He looked so at home during his stay here, and clearly chuffed to be back. Having said all that, one must know how to drive home an advantage, otherwise it counts for nothing. Without seeming at any point cynical about the whole enterprise, Dr Tshering certainly did. Even more remarkably, Foreign Minister Tandi Dorji, very much a part of the entourage here, was the prime minister's contemporary at MMC.

When you learn that these two were the founders of the Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DST) political party after 2008, the year that the Bhutanese royal family relinquished power by handing over the affairs of state to the people's representatives a brand new parliament, as the mountain kingdom evolved to become a constitutional monarchy, you realize that the current leadership in Thimpu's vision for their country may well have been formed in Mymensingh!

Despite the personal touch to the scheduling, it certainly played well. And they managed it by making time for other important engagements as well. I had the opportunity to meet the lyonchhen (as the Bhutanese call their PM) at a reception hosted by their ambassador on Pahela Baishakh. He had just returned from Mymensingh and must have been tired, yet I found him as engaging as he had appeared on television earlier in the day.

Dr Tshering is very well-versed in the contours of the bilateral relationship between his country and Bangladesh. It is said, and I stress said, that too not very substantively, that he and his party reflect more of the centre-left tradition in South Asia, and tacks to Delhi for its political direction and program of action. Indeed the entire nation has been throughout its history somewhat of a sanctuary for travellers and other gypsies. These days India guarantees its security (so they are treaty-bound to come to Bhutan's defence should they come under attack). But that does not mean Bhutan lacks a formal foreign policy. If anything, there have been the first rumbles of a gradual opening up, like a realisation setting in, as the country explores its options instead of settling for vassal-state status.

Speaking cogently, Dr Tshering identified four areas in particular where he sees more scope for cooperation between Bangladesh and Bhutan, either bilaterally or multilaterally. The most important of all being the regional energy exchange or grid, an idea that seems to have lost a bit of steam from when it was first floated some years ago. It was surprising to see none of the 5 instruments signed between the two governments were in the sphere of energy cooperation.

This is despite the reported potential of cross-border trade in the South-Asian region has the potential to grow to 60,000 Mw through 2045. Currently, a mere 3,000 Mw of power is traded in the region among the original seven countries that made up Saarc, which is likely to double by 2020, according to Delhi-based Integrated Research and Action for Development (IRADe).

Bhutan and Nepal also rely only on clean, renewable hydropower for meeting their power demand. Bhutan is said to have tapped only 6 percent of its 30 Gw hydro-power potential. A majority of its revenue comes from energy export to India. Around 2015/16, Bangladeshi investors were promising the capital required to realise that potential - the vast bulk of which would be available for export.

Only four nations -- Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal - the so-called BBIN, account for a large chunk of the cross-border electricity trade. This exchange of power is undertaken primarily through power purchase pacts signed as part of special agreements between the governments. The Bangladesh foreign minister, after meeting Dr Tshering, said he had urged the Bhutanese government to "work towards a final agreement", somewhat indicating the bottleneck is at the Bhutanese end.

Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque's contribution on this was only slightly more positive - discussions were at an 'advanced stage' according to him, and an agreement could be signed soon. For those who can't wait to see the economic relationship between Bangladesh and Bhutan take off though, the question then becomes: how soon is soon?

Masud J. Khan is Deputy Managing Director of Cosmos Group.