Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar's visit to Dhaka this week served to confirm the reset in relations between two of the three largest Muslim-majority nations in the world (by population), after 15 years during which ties were put on the backburner under the Awami League government in Bangladesh. During the two-day trip, Dar met a range of senior officials-including interim leader Muhammad Yunus-and the heads of multiple political parties. It was the first visit by a Pakistani foreign minister to Bangladesh since Hina Rabbani Khar came here in 2012.
Dar's trip was originally scheduled to take place in April, but had to be delayed due to rising tensions between India and Pakistan. Pakistan's foreign secretary, Amna Baloch, did come though, marking the resumption of high-level diplomatic engagement between the two countries. Between foreign office meetings, high-level military engagement, the resumption of direct trade and the relaxation of visa restrictions, diplomatic relations between Bangladesh and Pakistan have been thawing since the dramatic ouster of Sheikh Hasina last year. Chief Adviser Yunus has met Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif twice, once on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York and then during the Developing-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation Summit in Cairo last year.
It all represents a remarkable resurgence in bilateral relations after 15 years during which Dhaka's ties with New Delhi took prominence over all its other relationships under Hasina. It is well known of course that she and her family have had a special rapport with India for decades. That was seen as the main reason behind Bangladesh's relationship with Pakistan being essentially frozen during Hasina's years in power. During this period, we also saw Saarc, the regional cooperation mechanism for South Asia, getting effectively scuppered at India's behest. Two other bodies promoted by Delhi as potential replacements for Saarc, the BBIN (Bhutan, Bangladesh, India and Nepal) and BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation), have failed to take off satisfactorily.
During his meeting with Dar, Yunus called the revival of Saarc a "top priority" for Bangladesh. But it should be well-understood that whether this gains any traction or not will depend not only on Dhaka and Islamabad but also on New Delhi's willingness to re-engage.
As for bilateral ties between Dhaka and Islamabad, the road ahead looks bright, judging from the goodwill on display from both sides. Some sensitive issues dating from the 1971 birth of Bangladesh continue to remain unresolved however - number one being the issue of Pakistan seeking an apology for the genocide committed by its armed forces here, in collaboration with local supporters. Dar seemed to indicate Pakistan has already apologised twice - once during the Shimla Conference in 1974, and again when Pakistan's then-president General Pervez Musharraf visited Bangladesh in 2002. But Bangladesh has always considered both to be inadequate, and this was reiterated by Foreign Affairs Adviser Touhid Hossain.
At the same time however, the political winds this time are in favour of taking the relationship forward in different spheres without getting bogged down in the past, and to that end, the visit of Dar will have played a significant part.
