After brief disruption, officials restart talks for Bangladesh PM Tarique Rahman’s India visit
New Delhi and Dhaka have quietly got the conversation going again. After a few weeks of frost that followed Sheikh Hasina’s virtual press conference from somewhere in India in early August, officials on both sides are back at the table, working out the details of a possible visit by Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman to India. Diplomatic sources say the two sides are aiming for a suitable window in November. Rahman is due in New York later this month for the United Nations General Assembly. After that he has a string of other engagements lined up through October and into November. The idea is to slot the India trip into a gap that works for both capitals once those are done. Indian High Commissioner Dinesh Trivedi has been busy in Dhaka over the past few days. He has met Water Resources Minister Mohammed Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anee and Education Adviser Mahdi Amin, among others. Officials from both countries have continued meeting in the Bangladeshi capital and are putting together an agenda. Top of the list are ways to regularise bilateral trade, which has taken a hit because of the earlier political uncertainty, and questions around the renewal of the Ganga Water Treaty. That treaty runs out in December, so the clock is ticking. This is not the first time a visit has been talked about. India invited Rahman for a bilateral trip soon after he took office in February following the BNP’s election win. There was also a separate invitation for him to attend the recent BRICS summit in New Delhi as chair of BIMSTEC. Bangladesh chose not to send anyone to that meeting. State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humayun Kobir made it plain that Dhaka wants to reset the relationship through a proper bilateral visit at a moment that feels right, rather than starting on the sidelines of a multilateral event. The August disruption was sharp. Hasina’s press interaction from Indian soil, marking two years since she left power, triggered strong reactions in Bangladesh. Dhaka said the atmosphere had been spoiled and that a more favourable environment was needed before any high-level trip could go ahead. There were also repeated calls from the Bangladeshi side for progress on extradition requests involving Hasina and others. India has maintained that those are legal matters that will be handled through established processes. Despite the earlier friction, the practical work has not stopped. Trade and connectivity remain important for both countries. Bangladesh faces pressure on energy and other supplies, and India has previously indicated readiness to discuss soft loans, easing of certain trade and transit restrictions, and other practical steps. The Ganga waters issue is particularly time-sensitive. Officials know that letting the treaty simply lapse would create fresh problems for farmers and communities on both sides of the border. Rahman has already travelled to Malaysia and China since becoming prime minister. India was traditionally the first stop for new Bangladeshi leaders, but the political changes after 2024 shifted that pattern. Now both sides appear to recognise that prolonged distance serves neither. People who deal with these files say the conversations in Dhaka are focused on concrete outcomes rather than symbolism alone. Rahman is understood to want clear takeaways he can present back home, whether on trade normalisation, visa facilitation, land-port usage, or water sharing. The Indian side has kept the invitation open. High Commissioner Trivedi’s recent meetings are being read as a signal that New Delhi is ready to move whenever Dhaka is. Sources in Dhaka confirm that efforts are under way to find that November window after Rahman’s other commitments are cleared. Of course, nothing is locked in yet. Schedules can shift, and domestic political pressures in both countries can still intervene. Anti-India sentiment exists in sections of Bangladeshi public opinion, and any visit will be watched closely for what it delivers. At the same time, the economic and geographic realities of the neighbourhood pull both capitals toward engagement. Trade that once flowed more freely, water that both sides depend on, and people who move across the border for work and family all create daily reasons to keep talking. For now, the officials are doing exactly that. Meetings continue in Dhaka. An agenda is being shaped around trade, water and other practical matters. Rahman heads to New York first, then turns to the rest of his autumn calendar. Somewhere in the weeks that follow, if the timing falls right and the agenda looks solid enough, the long-discussed India visit may finally take place. It has been a careful, stop-start process. The brief disruption after August is behind them for the moment. The talks have restarted, the issues are on the table, and both sides appear to be looking for a workable date rather than an open-ended delay. Whether November works will depend on the fine print still being negotiated, but the willingness to sit down and sort it out is back on display. Sources:The Hindu (Kallol Bhattacherjee, 17 September 2026)The Business Standard (18 September 2026)India Today, bdnews24.com, Daily Sun and other reports on the BRICS invitation and earlier positions of both governments. @Rohit Manral
‘Not expecting neighbours to do only what’s in my interest’: Jaishankar on Bangladesh amid Hasina row
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar was saying on Saturday when he spoke about India and Bangladesh.He was at the Economic Times World Leaders Forum in Delhi, and someone asked him about the current awkwardness between the two countries—especially Bangladesh’s demand that India hand over Sheikh Hasina, and the question mark hanging over a possible visit by Bangladesh’s new Prime Minister Tarique Rahman. Jaishankar didn’t get into the details of any private talks. He rarely does. Instead he kept it simple and practical. He said, “What I can tell you is for any relationship to work, it has to meet the test of mutual interest. It has to work for them, it has to work for us.” Then he added the line that really stays with you: “I am also realistic, I’m not expecting neighbours to do only what’s in my interest. There has to be a fair degree, a reasonable degree, of my recognising and respecting what is their interest, just as I expect them also to do so.” He went on to say that once both sides find that common ground—that “landing point”—things start moving more smoothly. At the end of the day, he said, mutuality is what holds these relationships together. It’s a calm, grown-up way of putting it at a time when things have been a bit tense. Sheikh Hasina has been in India since August 2024, when she left Bangladesh during the big political upheaval. Bangladesh has been asking for her return so she can face the cases against her there. Some reports say Dhaka has even linked that demand to Rahman’s possible trip to India. New Delhi has invited him—both for a regular bilateral visit and in connection with the BRICS summit, since Bangladesh chairs BIMSTEC right now. But the timing has been uncertain, and the Hasina issue keeps sitting in the background. After 2024 the relationship took a real knock. There was coolness, some trade friction, sharper public comments. When Tarique Rahman took charge earlier this year, it looked like both sides were trying to steady the boat a bit. Then Hasina did a virtual media interaction from India on the second anniversary of her departure, and that seemed to irritate Dhaka all over again. India has said it didn’t organise or endorse that interaction, but the episode still added to the strain. Jaishankar’s answer didn’t pick a fight and it didn’t give anything away either. He just stated the obvious truth: lasting ties can’t be one-sided. India has its own interests—border security, connectivity for the Northeast, trade, regional stability. Bangladesh has its own priorities, shaped by what its people and its politics want right now. Pretending those don’t exist doesn’t help anyone. He’s talked about neighbourhood diplomacy this way before. What feels refreshing is that he isn’t treating this as a zero-sum game. He’s not saying India holds all the cards, and he’s not saying Bangladesh has to simply fall in line. The message is quieter and more realistic: both sides need to feel they’re getting something out of it. That applies whether you’re talking about high-level visits, legal requests, border management or the everyday economic links that ordinary people actually feel. And ordinary people do feel it. Cross-border trade, medical travel, family visits, the movement of goods—those things matter more than diplomatic language. When the temperature stays high for too long, those practical connections start to suffer first. Finding common ground, as Jaishankar put it, is less about grand speeches and more about the patient work of spotting where interests overlap and managing the differences that will always be there. Right now the two governments are still talking about the visit. Whether it happens soon or takes a little longer, the larger point he made still holds. Neighbours don’t have to agree on everything. They just have to accept that each has legitimate interests of its own. Expecting only one side to adjust is a sure way to keep the friction going. Looking for the place where interests meet is the more practical path—and the one he said India is ready to take. In the end it’s the kind of plain-spoken view that doesn’t make for dramatic headlines, but it might actually help keep the relationship from drifting further off course. Mutual interest isn’t a fancy slogan. It’s just the basic condition for any lasting neighbourhood arrangement. And right now, that’s exactly what both sides need to remember. Sources: Hindustan Times, The Indian Express, India Today, Zee News, News18, India TV, WION, The Daily Star, Firstpost, Times of India (coverage of Jaishankar’s remarks at the Economic Times World Leaders Forum, 22–23 August 2026). @Rohit Manral