After brief disruption, officials restart talks for Bangladesh PM Tarique Rahman’s India visit

After a brief disruption in ties, India and Bangladesh have resumed official-level talks to firm up plans for a visit by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman to New Delhi, diplomatic sources have confirmed.

Bilateral relations took a hit after the virtual press conference by former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August triggered backlash in her home country. Ms. Hasina is currently living in an undisclosed location in India.

The Hindu was told that officials on both sides have continued meetings in Dhaka and are working on setting up an agenda for the visit that will include regularisation of bilateral trade that has been affected because of unstable political relations and questions over the renewal of Ganga Water Treaty among other issues.

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Envoy’s meetings

Sources in Dhaka said Prime Minister Mr. Rahman is scheduled to travel to New York for the United Nations General Assembly this month following which he will have multiple diplomatic engagements over October and November, while efforts are underway to schedule his visit to New Delhi during a suitable window in November. Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Dinesh Trivedi has held meetings with a series of officials over the last few days, including the country’s Minister of Water Resources Mohammed Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anee and Adviser to the Prime Minister for Ministry of Education Mahdi Amin.

Mr. Rahman was invited to participate in the recently held BRICS Summit here in his capacity as the head of BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) but Bangladesh did not send any representation to the event with Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Humayun Kobir asserting that Bangladesh is planning to “reset” ties with India and for that Dhaka will prioritise a bilateral visit at a “conducive” moment. The Hindu had earlier reported that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) government had viewed the cancellation of a programme by supporters of Ms. Hasina’s Awami League earlier this month as a “positive sign”.

Ms. Hasina has been based in India since fleeing Dhaka on August 5, 2024 and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh had expressed “outrage” over her latest press conference where she had alleged that law and order had broken down in Bangladesh. Over the past two years, Ms. Hasina and several of her top ministers and officials have received death sentences at the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in Dhaka for their alleged role in the crackdown against protesters in July-August 2024, which ultimately toppled her government.

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Rahman’s emissaries

Though the fall of Ms. Hasina was seen as unexpected, sources within the current dispensation in Dhaka have said that Mr. Rahman maintained his touch with India during his years in exile in London and that he had received indication in February 2024 that New Delhi too was not expecting the Hasina government to last beyond a few months.

The Hindu was informed that Mr. Rahman’s personal contacts with Indian officials were renewed at least since February 2024 when he had sent an emissary to India to sense India’s mood following the widely criticised election of January 2024 that was boycotted by the BNP under his leadership. The engagement was in line with previous exchanges between BNP and India during the Sheikh Hasina era between 2009 and 2024 when she was in power.

Two months before the January 2024 election, current Energy Minister Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku had visited New Delhi. In an interview with The Hindu, Mr. Tuku had urged India to extend “unambiguous support to the democratic aspirations” of the people of Bangladesh. In similar vein in 2018,  a three-member team consisting of Abdul Awal Mintoo, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury and Humayan Kobirhad visited New Delhi to engage with the Government of India. The Daily Star had reported that the 2018 visit was a result of Mr. Rahman’s instruction to his party to carry out course correction as “the hostile policy towards India was wrong and misguided”.