With India and Bangladesh seeking to reset ties after a strain of nearly one and half years, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman is arriving in New Delhi on Tuesday on a crucial visit to meet top Indian ministers and chalk out the roadmap for normalising relations between the two South Asian neighbours.
This will be the first high-level visit from Bangladesh after the Tarique Rahman-led Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP) government assumed office in Dhaka.
The Bangladesh minister will be in New Delhi en-route to Mauritius to attend an Indian Ocean conference on 11-12 April. He will be accompanied by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s adviser on foreign affairs Humayun Kabir and other senior officials, clearly reflecting the importance the new government in Dhaka attaches to ties with New Delhi
India is very optimistic about the upcoming visit with senior officials quite sure that it will put the bilateral relationship back on the track after it witnessed downslide when the Muhammad Yunus-led caretaker regime was at the helm in Dhaka following the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina government in August 2024.
During his visit here, the Bangladeshi minister is expected to hold talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. Sources said Rahman could also call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, depending upon the availability of the Indian leader, who is busy with campaigning for the coming Assembly elections.
The visit will provide an opportunity to both sides to get a better understanding of each other’s commitment to bilateral ties, notwithstanding differences on certain issues.
Ahead of the Bangladesh minister’s visit to New Delhi, Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pranay kumar Verma met Prime Minister Tarique Rahman in Dhaka today and discussed ‘’bilateral engagement with focus on people-centric cooperation in multiple domains aligned with the national development priorities of the two countries.’’
The Indian envoy conveyed to the Bangladesh PM India’s intent to work together with the government and people of Bangladesh by adopting a positive, constructive and forward-looking approach based on mutual interest and mutual benefit, the Indian High Commission said.
Ever since the new government assumed office in Dhaka, Bangladesh High Commissioner to India M. Riaz Hamidullah has also been quietly engaged in some high-profile diplomacy with the Indian leadership. He has done a considerable amount of spadework to ensure the success of his minister’s visit.
Local media, meanwhile, quoted the Bangladesh minister as saying that he will meet Jaishankar and several other important government representatives in New Delhi. The discussions, he said, will focus on the future of relations between the two countries. ‘’We want a normal relationship with India, based on mutual respect, dignity and interests,’’ he said.