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Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has signaled a firm diplomatic stance regarding high-level bilateral engagements with India, indicating that he will not visit India or participate in the upcoming BRICS summit unless former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is extradited to Bangladesh, according to a report by the Indian daily The Tribune.
Citing diplomatic sources, the report revealed that Tarique Rahman made Dhaka’s position clear during a 45-minute meeting with Indian High Commissioner Dinesh Trivedi in Dhaka on August 10. The report claimed that New Delhi was formally apprised that Tarique Rahman's prospective bilateral visit to India remains conditionally tied ("fifty-fifty") to the extradition of Sheikh Hasina. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier extended an invitation to Tarique Rahman to visit India, an overture considered distinct from Bangladesh's invitation to attend the BRICS summit in its capacity as the current chair of BIMSTEC.
On the same day, Parag Jain, chief of India’s foreign intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), visited Dhaka and held discussions with Retired Brigadier General AKM Shamsul Islam, the Prime Minister’s close aide and defense affairs adviser. High Commissioner Dinesh Trivedi also met the Prime Minister on August 10, reiterating India's desire for a "positive, constructive, and forward-looking" relationship and emphasizing that no bilateral issue is insurmountable.
The report noted that while New Delhi views Bangladesh as a pivotal partner in Prime Minister Modi's revitalized "Act East" and neighborhood diplomacy, Dhaka’s tough conditions presented an unexpected challenge for Indian diplomats. Meanwhile, both sides are reportedly exploring diplomatic flexibility given strategic dependencies, regional security priorities along India's eastern border, and Bangladesh's upcoming high-level engagements with Malaysia and China. While Indian diplomatic circles maintain that long-standing historic ties with Sheikh Hasina make an immediate policy shift in Delhi unlikely, sources acknowledged that her recent press conference on August 5 has added fresh complications to normalizing ties between the two neighbors.
