Photo: Collected
Bangladesh and India have once again begun formal-level talks centring on Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s possible visit to New Delhi. This information came up in a report by Indian media outlet The Hindu.
Fresh unease had recently been created in Dhaka-Delhi relations over a virtual press conference by ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who is staying in India. However, The Hindu claims that officials of the two countries are continuing regular meetings, getting past that strain.
During this visit by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, important issues such as normalising bilateral trade and renewing the Ganges water treaty will be on the agenda.
The prime minister is going to New York this month to join the session of the United Nations General Assembly. He has several diplomatic engagements from September to November. In between these, efforts are under way to confirm a New Delhi visit at a convenient time in the coming November.
As part of this initiative, India’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh Dinesh Trivedi has held a series of meetings with several top officials in Dhaka. Among them are Water Resources Minister Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Anee and Mahdi Amin, the prime minister’s adviser on education ministry affairs.
Although Prime Minister Tarique Rahman was invited to the recently held BRICS summit as the head of BIMSTEC, no representative from Bangladesh went to India. State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humayun Kabir said this top-level visit is being given priority at a fully favourable time precisely in order to rebuild bilateral relations with India.
Sheikh Hasina has been staying in India since being ousted in the student-people mass uprising on 5 August 2024. Bangladesh’s foreign ministry recently expressed anger over a statement of hers. On the other hand, the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) has sentenced Sheikh Hasina and several top ministers and officials of her administration to death for crimes against humanity against protesters in July-August 2024.
