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War is the reality of our times. Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine began over four years ago. It is nearly three years since the United States-Israel combine’s war, termed by many experts as genocidal, began. And the U.S. war on Iran, triggered by the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on February 28, 2026, has lasted nearly seven months. The U.S. also appears fearful about a rapid escalation in West Asia after the Houthis attacked Riyadh recently.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s actions have repeatedly shown us that where he cannot take on an adversary on the battlefield, he will turn to tariffs and sanctions. In a move aimed at increasing the economic pressure on Russia over its war in Ukraine, U.S. lawmakers voted to pass a sweeping bill last week, imposing sanctions on Russia’s defence and energy sectors. The steep levies that entail the legislation, passed with strong bipartisan support on Wednesday, will impact not just Moscow, but also its top energy buyers, including India and China.  

“On Friday, September 18, 2026, the President signed into law: H.R. 5334, the “Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026”, which authorizes and expands statutory sanctions, tariffs, and prohibitions on Russia and extends existing sanctions on Iran,” the White House said.

In a statement reacting to the move, the Ministry of External Affairs said, “India remains firmly committed to ensuring energy security for its 1.4 billion people” via diversified sourcing of energy inputs, determined according to evolving market forces. India would also “protect its trade and economic interests”. Read Sriram Lakshman’s report for context on the legislation.

The Hindu’s Economics and Business Editor T.C.A. Sharad Raghavan has been closely tracking developments around this move, as well as trends in India’s oil imports. He combed through the latest official data and found out that Russia accounted for more than 51% of India’s oil imports in July, an all-time-high.

His analysis of data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed that India imported 110.4 lakh tonnes of oil from Russia in July 2026, the latest month for which data is available. This works out to nearly 52% of India’s total oil imports that month, the highest-ever share that Russian oil has enjoyed. India’s oil imports from Russia in July 2026 were also 26% higher than in June, and nearly 55% higher than in July last year. This sharp increase in volumes, coupled with elevated oil prices, also meant that India’s Russian oil import bill shot up in July 2026 as compared to last year. That is, India’s import bill on Russian oil stood at $7.3 billion in July 2026 more than double the $3.6 billion spent in July last year.  

Writing on how the new legislation and the subsequent sanctions are likely to affect India, T.C.A. Sharad Raghavan notes: The impact on India’s economy has to be looked at in terms of two eventualities. The first is if India continues to buy large quantities of Russian oil and bears the tariffs. The second is if India cuts back on Russian oil imports and manages to have the potential tariffs removed. In the event that India continues to buy Russian oil and bears the tariffs, we can look at what happened during the period when the 50% tariffs were in force, between August 2025 and February 2026, to gauge the likely impact.

Further, along with our colleague Kallol Bhattacherjee, he looked at data to see how India has responded to U.S. curbs in the past decade. Over the last decade or so, India has complied with U.S. pressure to reduce oil imports from countries it has sought to isolate, such as Venezuela, Iran, and Russia, even though they were important sources. Once the U.S. pressure eased, official data show that India almost immediately turned back to these sources of oil, they wrote.

The economic impact is one aspect, the political impact and the diplomatic fallout are other aspects to consider. However one may see it, it is hard to ignore the serious escalation in tensions between the U.S. and India, as our editorial today makes clear.

“The escalation last year of reciprocal tariffs to 50% on India’s import of Russian oil was based on an Executive Order, and could be rescinded through the same method. This latest Act has been passed by the U.S. Congress and so carries a higher order of legal permanence and authority,” it observed, adding: “India’s ability to secure a low rate will be a true test of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s friendship with Mr. Trump.”

In our neighbourhood 

Closer to home, New Delhi continues navigating sensitive ties with India’s neighbours. Nepal’s Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle, an economist and former UNDP official, made his first visit abroad to Delhi to discuss plans with the government, and will soon travel to meetings of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank to seek support for an estimated $5 billion recovery project. In an exclusive interview with The Hindu’s Diplomatic Affairs Editor Suhasini Haidar, Mr. Wagle said the new Balen Shah government in Nepal wants a “reset” with India, and a revision of old trade and connectivity projects.

Meanwhile, Kallol Bhattacherjee reports that 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.

Published – September 21, 2026 12:30 pm IST

Bangladesh PM Tarique Rahman. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

In 1961, General Ayub Khan’s military government of Pakistan wanted to further entrench its control over East Pakistan and made the celebration of Rabindranath Tagore’s birth centenary illegal. The crackdown had the opposite outcome, as colleges and universities in East Pakistan erupted. The protests shaped a generation of leaders who would take important positions subsequently as Bangladesh became a free country a decade later. Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the new President of Bangladesh, graduated from Dhaka University during those early years when agitational politics energised the demand for a new country.

There are many legends about Mr. Alamgir, one of which is that he is a master of marathon meetings, sustained simply by cups of tea. The late Khaleda Zia was also known for her energy and her tireless engagement with the cadre of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). But the only other person who used to spend longer hours at the BNP Chairperson’s office in Dhaka’s Gulshan was Mr. Alamgir. In 2015, one night, Begum Zia, on hearing that Mr. Alamgir was leaving the office at 2 a.m., chided him for working so late, as the Sheikh Hasina government had tightened political space and BNP leaders were under pressure. “They can detain you for plotting protests in the city if they find you without adequate party workers around,” Begum Zia told him.

Among his friends and colleagues, President Alamgir is known for his personal bravery and integrity. G.M. Quader, younger brother of the late President Gen. Ershad, who has known Mr. Alamgir for more than 50 years, says: “Sacrificing self-interest is rare in politics, but Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has sacrificed a lot for the BNP at a time when the party was under tremendous pressure. It was he who kept the party alive on the ground as Tarique Rahman lived in the U.K.”

The period following the end of the last BNP government in 2006 was not easy for the party or its cadre and officials. After the interim government, Ms. Hasina took charge in 2009, beginning an era in which the BNP remained under sustained pressure. During this period, it was Mr. Alamgir, the party’s general secretary, who handled much of its political work. His emergence as President of Bangladesh marks the high point of a political career that has seen many of the highs and lows of Bangladesh’s political history.

Starting as a student activist in East Pakistan, Mr. Alamgir was initially associated with the leftist student movement that opposed Gen. Ayub Khan’s dictatorship. He was sent to study economics in Dhaka University where he joined the East Pakistan Students Union, the student wing of the Communist Party of Bangladesh.

His father, Mirza Ruhul Amin, had tried his luck with mainstream Pakistani politics and was elected to the provincial assembly.

By the end of the 1960s, with the political breakdown inside Pakistan, Mirza Ruhul Amin’s career came to a standstill, and he joined a peace committee in Thakurgaon to preserve local peace and amity as the Pakistani military attacked commoners. Eventually, he too had to take refuge in India, like many others, because of the atrocities by the Pakistani forces.

During the 1971 war, Mr. Alamgir left Dhaka and went to Thakurgaon and organised local resistance against Pakistani police and military forces. Decades later, in 2018, in a video message against the Hasina-led government, Mr. Alamgir said he too had fought against the Pakistani forces like millions of other youngsters of Bangladesh.

Beginning of political career

Mr. Alamgir’s active political career formally began when Gen. Ziaur Rahman took charge after the November 7, 1975 military uprising in Dhaka. Later, several leftist and socialist leaders joined Ziaur Rahman’s political party, the BNP, and Mr. Alamgir was one of them. His first experience of working for a BNP government came in 1979, when he served as secretary to Deputy Prime Minister S.A. Bari. He returned to teaching after the overthrow of the BNP government following the assassination of Ziaur Rahman in 1981.

During the next eight years, he taught economics in Dhaka and nurturing his links with the BNP that was being revived by Khaleda Zia. His father had reinvented his political career at this time and served as a Minister in the government of Hossein Mohammed Ershad. Mr. Alamgir left the government job towards the end of the 1980s when he won the chairmanship of the municipality of Thakurgaon in 1988 as an Independent. He revived his links with the BNP once again in 1992 when Khaleda Zia was serving as PM.

He became a state Minister for agriculture in 2001 when Khaleda Zia became PM once again. He subsequently handled civil aviation and tourism as well. Mr. Alamgir came into national limelight during the difficult years of the BNP when Khaleda Zia was out of power and later in prison, and Tarique Rahman was forced into exile in the U.K. It was during this period, when Sheikh Hasina steered Bangladesh from 2009 onwards, that Mr. Alamgir took on much of the party’s responsibility.

In an interview with The Hindu in February this year, Mr. Alamgir, who was then in charge of the Ministry of Local Governance, Rural Development and Cooperatives, described the period under Ms. Hasina as “very difficult”. “It was difficult for us personally but it was more difficult for our families as many of our party workers and leaders were jailed on multiple occasions during the Hasina years.” On October 28, 2023, the BNP had given a call for a major rally in Dhaka that rattled the Hasina government. To scuttle the rally, the Awami League government detained him. The BNP boycotted the January 2024 election claiming that the government had rigged the polls and contesting in such circumstances was pointless. Following the overthrow of Ms. Hasina on August 5, 2024, Mr. Alamgir provided the BNP with the leadership it needed and took part in dialogues with the interim government aimed at stabilising the country.

The Hasina factor

Mr. Alamgir believes New Delhi should hand over Ms. Hasina to Dhaka. “We believe Hasina has really committed serious human rights violations. There is a popular demand to punish her and we believe that India should hand her over to us. But not handing over Sheikh Hasina to Bangladesh will not be a deterrent to build trade and commercial ties. We want to build even better ties,” said Mr. Alamgir in February 2026.

G.M. Quader described Mr. Alamgir as a pragmatist who wants to build relations with important stakeholders such as India, and said the biggest test before him as the President of Bangladesh will be whether he can bring his pragmatic approach into politics and administration. “Bangladesh’s politics needs to be more inclusive as we need to discuss all challenges before the country in a transparent manner. Hopefully, as President of the country, Mirza Fakhrul will be able to convince the government of Bangladesh to be just that,” Mr. Quader told The Hindu.

Published – August 23, 2026 02:22 am IST

In this image posted on August 10, 2026, High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh Dinesh Trivedi, right, during a meeting with Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
| Photo Credit: X/@ihcdhaka via PTI

Amid tightened nationwide security, Bangladesh on Wednesday (August 5, 2026) inaugurated a memorial museum at the official residence of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for the victims of violence during the anti-government protests in 2024 that toppled her government.

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman inaugurated the ‘July Mass Uprising Memorial Museum’ at Ganabhaban, prime minister’s official residence during Hasina’s regime, coinciding with the day she fled to India on August 5, 2024.

“The killers in the anti-fascist movement will be tried in a transparent, impartial and credible manner following the due process of law,” Mr. Rahman said in a brief address while unveiling the museum’s plaque.

“Justice for every crime is essential to ensure rule of law” Mr. Rahman said as the Interim government chief Muhammad Yunus stood beside him.

The Prime Minister announced that government institutions would be named after slain activists of the uprising and those who were killed during the rule of Hasina’s Awami League since 2009.

The 2024 mass uprising did not belong to any individual, group or political party, he said, adding, the true heroes of the uprising are the democratic people of Bangladesh.

Mr. Rahman toured the museum’s galleries and exhibitions featuring preserved artefacts, photographs, official documents, video footage and memorabilia related to the July Mass Uprising.

Speaking at the museum event, Mr. Yunus said the July Memorial Museum is not just an establishment but the beginning of a new chapter in Bangladesh’s history.

The July Memorial Museum will become the centre of “our history,” Mr. Yunus was quoted as saying by the state-run news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS).

“The path of a new Bangladesh will begin from here. If we lose our way, we will start from here,” Mr. Yunus said.

According to a February 2025 UN rights office report, up to 1,400 people were killed between July 15 and August 15 last year, the period dubbed as the ‘July Uprising,’ as Ms. Hasina’s government ordered a security crackdown on protesters.

Three days after Ms. Hasina fled to India following the widespread protests against her government over a controversial quota system in jobs, Mr. Yunus took over as the chief adviser of the Interim government.

A special tribunal set up by Mr. Yunus’ government gave Ms. Hasina a death sentence in November 2025 on charges of “crimes against humanity” and “genocide.” His interim regime, under an executive order, also banned Ms. Hasina’s Awami League that has been in power for many terms since 1971. The decision was endorsed by Mr. Rahman’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) government after the February 12 elections.

Family members of several July uprising victims shared their memories and reflections during the event, a report in Dhaka Tribune said.

Bangladesh is commemorating August 5 as the ‘July Mass Uprising Day’ with the government, political parties and socio-cultural organisations organising various programmes to honour the sacrifices of those, including students, who took to the streets against what they described as Ms. Hasina’s “misrule and autocracy,” according to the BSS.

Another Dhaka Tribune report said that a state ceremony marking the second anniversary of the July Mass Uprising descended into protests on Wednesday (August 5, 2026) after audience members accused the government of distorting the movement’s history through an official documentary, forcing ministers to apologise and promise immediate corrections.

The unprecedented disruption unfolded in the presence of Acting President Hafiz Uddin Ahmed Bir Bikram at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre, where families of those killed in July Uprising, injured protesters, students and political activists interrupted the programme with chants of “fake, fake” after the documentary was screened, it said.

The Daily Star said the National Citizen Party (NCP) member secretary and lawmaker Akhter Hossen alleged that the government-produced documentary shown at the state programme “deliberately omitted key events and presented an incomplete account of the movement.”

The NCP is led by those who spearheaded the 2024 street protest toppling the Awami League government.

“This was not a party programme; it was a state event. After attending, we felt that the documentary failed to present a complete picture of the July Uprising,” he told The Daily Star over the phone after walking out of the event.

According to Bengali daily Prothom Alo, at least 10 people sustained injuries after a scuffle and subsequent clash broke out between the leaders and activists of Chhatra Dal and Chhatra Shibir at the University of Barishal, in south-central Bangladesh, over a procession marking the anniversary of the July Mass Uprising.

Bangladesh Jatiotabadi Chhatra Dal, commonly known as Chhatra Dal, is BNP’s student wing while Islami Chhatra Shibir, known commonly as Chhatra Shibir, is the student wing of right wing Jamaat-e-Islami.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh tightened a nationwide security vigil fearing violence as Hasina was set to deliver a virtual public address in New Delhi.

The authorities had, earlier this week, ordered a nationwide security alert fearing outbreak of violence coinciding with the anniversary, particularly directing police to take extra care for their own personnel and their vehicles.

Paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) were deployed to enforce the vigil in southwestern Gopalganj, Ms. Hasina’s ancestral home district, and birthplace of her father and Bangladesh’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

However, there were no reports of any violence till Wednesday (August 5, 2026) evening.

According to media reports and analysts, there has been a sense of unease in Bangladesh since Ms. Hasina announced last month to return home by December.

The unease intensified as her party announced that she would appear virtually to meet the international press at New Delhi’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia on Wednesday (August 5, 2026).

Ahead of her public address, Sajeeb Wazed, her U.S.-based son and ICT affairs adviser of the ousted Awami government, in a social media post said, “The August 5 reminds us how an organised state, social system is grabbed by extremists under a unique design of some power greedy anti-Bangladesh quarters.”

Mr. Wazed said the day severely affected Bangladesh’s democratic continuity causing a protracted political unrest and a long-term crisis for different sectors of the state.

Mr. Wazed and Ms. Hasina both spoke virtually at the event.

Following widespread protests against her government over a controversial quota system in jobs, Ms. Hasina fled to India on August 5, 2024, an event that reshaped the country’s political landscape. Three days later, Muhammad Yunus took over as the chief adviser of the Interim government.

On November 17, 2025, the International Crime Tribunal, Bangladesh (ICT-BD) sentenced to death Mr. Hasina and home minister of her cabinet Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal after trial in absentia conserving their superior responsibility in committing crimes by their attempt to tame the protestors.

Earlier, Bangladesh prime minister’s information adviser Zahed Ur Rahman had warned media outlets that publishing or broadcasting Ms. Hasina’s speech would face strict legal actions, saying it would directly violate an active ban by the ICT-BD.

But ICT-BD chief prosecutor Aminul Islam said there was no blanket legal ban on broadcasting or publishing Ms. Hasina’s statements and said the tribunal restricted the Bangladesh media only from airing remarks that contain “hate speech” or undermined the special court’s dignity and image.

Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has received assurance from China on building the Teesta River Comprehensive Management and Restoration Project. The discussion in this regard took place when Mr. Rahman visited Beijing during June 24-26 and met top Chinese officials, including Premier Li Qiang, President Xi Jinping and Chinese water resources minister Li Guoying.

China has harvested its major rivers for power generation and irrigation, and is considered a major dam builder among the world powers. It is expected to expedite a feasibility study of the Teesta project that aims to change the physical nature of the Teesta inside Bangladesh and turn it into an artery of economic development.

What is the Chinese proposal on Teesta about?

Bangladesh has been in talks with China about managing and developing the Teesta river region for nearly a decade, and the discussion has spanned the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, which has been taken forward by the current government of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

In January this year, under the interim government led by Prof. Mohammed Yunus, Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) and the Chinese state-owned power generation company POWERCHINA signed an extension to an MoU that revived the Bangladesh-China cooperation on the river. The original MoU in this project was signed in 2016 under the Sheikh Hasina government, which had suggested river bank erosion control, flood management, disaster reduction, land reclamation, transportation and environment preservation as some of the features of China’s plans for Teesta.

The MoU included dredging of 140 million cubic metres of riverine sediment, reclamation of 171 square km of land, repairing of 110 km of embankment, constructing 124 km of new embankments and developing 224 km of road network. The project would lead to building of 82 jetty facilities along the Teesta. As a lower riparian project, the Chinese plans cannot disrupt the Teesta upstream in India and it aims to create conditions for Bangladesh to better utilise the water that it gets from India at present.

What is the problem that Bangladesh faces on the Teesta?

Teesta’s water is essential for the farmers of northern Bangladesh, covering districts like Nilphamari, Rangpur, Dinajpur, Bogura, Joypurhat and Gaibandha. Bangladesh’s main complaint is that Teesta’s water reduces to a trickle in the winter months between December and February, when water is required for sowing of paddy and vegetables.

To deal with its water requirements, Bangladesh built the Teesta Barrage, the largest irrigation project of the country, in the 1990s. The Teesta Barrage Irrigation Project (TBIP) was built to help the northern region of Bangladesh, as it had a history of being hit by Teesta’s floods, followed by a long spell of dry season, both of which used to disturb the local agricultural cycle.

India has built barrages and electricity projects upstream in the Teesta that allow it to harvest Teesta’s waters for requirements in West Bengal, Sikkim and Assam. Most prominent among these is the barrage in Gajoldoba in West Bengal, which is a major irrigation project that is controlled by the West Bengal government.

Whenever India holds water for its needs in Gajoldoba or in power generation units in Sikkim, Bangladesh claims that the part of the Teesta on its side goes low on water. For example, last year in November, TBIP had to shut all its gates as the water flow on the Teesta had reduced. The TBIP is used to store water for nearly 55,000 hectares of land, but the reduction of water on the river causes concern for it as lack of water affects both irrigation as well as commercial activities on the river.

What is the importance of Teesta to India?

Teesta originates from the spectacular high altitude Cholamu or Tso Lhamu Lake (5100 metres) in the Himalayan range in Sikkim. As the river flows down, it gathers volume from multiple glaciers and streams, and India has built multiple power generation projects on the river in Sikkim. Apart from Gajoldoba/Gojaldoba in West Bengal, Teesta is used for multiple power projects (at least six major and several smaller) in Sikkim and West Bengal that generate electricity required in the region. The river is also a major tourism attraction and serves as home of migratory birds in West Bengal.

What has been India-Bangladesh negotiations over Teesta?

Bangladesh’s main demand from India has been getting what it considers to be a fair share of the Teesta’s water so that the irrigation project in North Bangladesh can run smoothly. The two sides had negotiated the issue of sharing of Teesta’s water for decades, and the matter was taken up again in 2010 when India prepared a set of principles for sharing of Teesta’s water, and the two sides agreed to an interim agreement.

However, the agreement was not sealed when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Dhaka in 2011, mainly because of objections from Mamata Banerjee, who had spoken about the matter during her election rallies that year. Ms. Banerjee became Chief Minister that year after defeating the Left.

A Joint Statement issued on September 7, 2011, in Dhaka said, “The two Prime Ministers welcomed that there has been progress on the principles and modalities of interim agreements on sharing of waters of Teesta and Feni Rivers on a fair and equitable basis. They directed the concerned officials to work towards concluding the agreements at the earliest.” At the end, it was clear that Kolkata’s objection prevailed over Delhi’s plans.

Subsequently, Sheikh Hasina repeatedly raised the issue during her visits to Delhi and discussed this matter in June 2024 when a technical committee was planned to take the matter forward.

Before that visit, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra had visited Dhaka and conveyed the Indian offer of financing the $1 billion project to dredge and manage the Teesta in Bangladesh. That was the last attempt by India to deal with the issue, as the two sides did not discuss the matter during the 15-month-long interim rule in Dhaka, which was followed by the BNP government led by PM Rahman.

What are India’s concerns on Bangladesh going to China for the Teesta project?

The area of Nilphamari and Rangpur is near Jalpaiguri of India, which is where the “chicken’s neck” is located. POWERCHINA, which has revived the MoU with Bangladesh, is a large organisation experienced in river projects, but it is also related to the strategic sectors of China.

Stationing a large number of Chinese professionals so close to a sensitive area of India will raise eyebrows in India. However, Bangladesh has several internationally supported projects, including the Ruppur nuclear power plant that has engineers and technicians from multiple countries, including Russia and Ukraine. China earlier built the landmark Padma Bridge during Sheikh Hasina’s tenure in 2022. The bridge was built by China Major Bridge Engineering Company.

Published – June 27, 2026 01:30 pm IST

Tarique Rahman. File
| Photo Credit: AP

A file image of writer Taslima Nasrin.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu