Bangladesh foreign minister Khalilur Rahman is going to India today on a maiden visit during which he is scheduled to hold meetings with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar and national security adviser Ajit Doval, among others, in New Delhi in a move to take the ‘bilateral ties to a new direction’.
Khalilur is likely to raise key pressing issues, including Dhaka’s request for the extradition of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina and others facing trials for atrocities committed during the July uprising in 2024 and sheltered there, renewal of the 30-year Ganges water treaty, which will expire in December, the killing of Bangladeshis along border by India’s Border Security Force, trade barriers and energy cooperation with the Indian authorities during the visit, foreign ministry officials in Dhaka said on Monday.
The foreign minister would also hold talks with the petroleum and natural gas minister to discuss energy cooperation amid the gasoline supply crisis due to the ongoing conflict across the Gulf states.
His visit, according to officials, would prepare a ground for taking the bilateral ties to a new direction as the relations between the two neighbours strained after the fall of Sheikh Hasina on August 5, 2024 in the wake of the July mass uprising.
On the advent of the high-profile visit, Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh Pranay Verma on Monday conveyed his government’s intent to work together with the government and the people of Bangladesh in a ‘positive, constructive and forward-looking manner based on mutual interest and mutual benefit’, said a release issued by the Indian High Commission in Dhaka.
The Indian envoy conveyed the message during a courtesy call on prime minister Tarique Rahman at the PM’s office in the secretariat in the capital Dhaka.
They discussed bilateral engagement with a focus on people-centric cooperation in multiple domains aligned with the national development priorities of the two countries.
The discussions focused on enhancing cooperation in a wide range of areas, including public health, financial inclusion, women’s empowerment, rural development, bilateral trade and investment, ease of doing business, technology partnerships, and power and energy cooperation, according to the release.
Foreign minister Khalilur Rahman, prime minister’s foreign affairs adviser Humaiun Kobir, and Indian deputy high commissioner to Bangladesh Pawan Badhe, among others, were present during Pranay Verma’s meeting with Tarique Rahman.
Foreign ministry officials said that the foreign minister’s visit at the invitation of Indian external affairs minister S Jaishankar would focus on a win-win relation based on mutual respects and both the countries were now positive about it.
The three-day trip will be the first bilateral visit to New Delhi after the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government took office following the party’s landslide victory in the February 12 general elections.
Khalilur, who served as the national security adviser in the immediate past interim government and is a surprise inclusion in Tarique Rahman’s cabinet, is scheduled to join the 9th Indian Ocean Conference scheduled for April 10-12 in Mauritius after concluding his Delhi visit on April 9, said an official.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi earlier in a positive gesture invited prime minister Tarique Rahman and his family to India at a mutually convenient time on his assumption of office on February 17.
Dhaka has, meanwhile, requested New Delhi for additional fuel through the existing pipeline for diesel supply to address possible crisis amid the conflict across the Gulf since the United States and Israel’s joint attack on Iran on February 28 and the retaliatory strikes from Tehran on Israel and the US bases in Arab states.
Bangladesh has also initiated a move to bring back Iquilab Mancha convener Osman Hadi murder suspects — Faisal Karim Masud and his associate Alamgir Hossain — arrested in West Bengal of India early March under the extradition treaty, but the move has not made any visible progress so far, according to officials.
Ties between India and Bangladesh soured during the tenure of the interim government led by chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus between August 2024 and February 2026.
Neither chief adviser Professor Yunus nor his foreign adviser Md Touhid Hossain visited India during the period.
Khalilur’s visit is set to build on a visit by Bangladesh’s Director General of Forces Intelligence chief Major General Mohammad Kaisar Rashid Chowdhury to New Delhi earlier this month when he met with Parag Jain, chief of the Research and Analysis Wing, as well as his Indian counterpart Lieutenant General RS Raman, ThePrint, a Delhi-based digital news platform, reported on March 27.
Khalilur, being the national security adviser in the Professor Yunus-led interim government, had travelled to India for the Colombo Security Conclave at the end of the past year when he had a meeting with Indian national security adviser Ajit Doval.
Ahead of the foreign minister’s visit, Bangladesh High Commissioner to India M Riaz Hamidullah on April 2 met with Indian Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi in New Delhi.
According to a post shared on X by the Indian Army’s Additional Directorate General of Public Information, the two officials held talks at South Block and ‘deliberated on enhancing bilateral defence cooperation, including joint training initiatives.’
They also explored opportunities for deeper collaboration aimed at promoting regional peace and security, it added.
