India, Bangladesh Resume Talks to Plan Tarique Rahman's Delhi Visit

India and Bangladesh have resumed official-level discussions to prepare for a visit by Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman to New Delhi, diplomatic sources have confirmed, after a brief disruption in bilateral ties.

The relationship had come under strain following a virtual press conference by former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August, which triggered a sharp backlash in her home country. Ms. Hasina, who fled Dhaka on August 5, 2024, has been living in India at an undisclosed location since.

Officials on both sides have continued to meet in Dhaka and are working on setting an agenda for the proposed visit. Among the issues expected to feature are the regularisation of bilateral trade, which has been affected by unstable political relations, and questions over the renewal of the Ganga Water Treaty.

According to sources in Dhaka, Mr. Rahman is scheduled to travel to New York for the United Nations General Assembly this month, followed by multiple diplomatic engagements across October and November. Efforts are underway to schedule his New Delhi visit during a suitable window in November.

Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Dinesh Trivedi has held a series of meetings with officials in recent days, including Minister of Water Resources Mohammed Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anee and Adviser to the Prime Minister for the Ministry of Education Mahdi Amin.

Mr. Rahman had been invited to attend the recently held BRICS Summit in his capacity as head of BIMSTEC, but Bangladesh sent no representation. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Humayun Kobir said Dhaka is planning to "reset" ties with India and will prioritise a bilateral visit at a "conducive" moment. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party government is said to have viewed the cancellation of a programme by supporters of Ms. Hasina's Awami League earlier this month as a positive sign.

Bangladesh's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had expressed outrage over Ms. Hasina's press conference, in which she alleged that law and order had broken down in the country. Over the past two years, Ms. Hasina and several of her former ministers and officials have received death sentences from the International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka for their alleged role in the crackdown on protesters in July-August 2024, which ultimately toppled her government.

Sources within the current dispensation in Dhaka have said Mr. Rahman maintained contact with India during his years in exile in London, and that he had received an indication in February 2024 that New Delhi did not expect the Hasina government to last beyond a few months. His personal contacts with Indian officials were renewed at least since February 2024, when he sent an emissary to India to gauge the mood following the January 2024 election, which was boycotted by the BNP under his leadership.

The engagement followed earlier exchanges between the BNP and India during the Sheikh Hasina era between 2009 and 2024. Two months before the January 2024 election, current Energy Minister Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku visited New Delhi and urged India to extend unambiguous support to the democratic aspirations of the people of Bangladesh. In 2018, a three-member team comprising Abdul Awal Mintoo, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury and Humayan Kobir visited New Delhi to engage with the Government of India, a visit reported to have followed Mr. Rahman's instruction to his party to correct a hostile policy towards India that he described as wrong and misguided.