Bangladesh is “reviewing” Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation to his counterpart Tarique Rahman to visit India, a senior minister said here on Wednesday.
Event Context
Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman made the comments when asked about India’s invitation to PM Tarique Rahman to attend the upcoming 18th BRICS Summit in Delhi.
Trivedi’s meeting with the foreign minister came a day before US President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy for South and Central Asia Sergio Gor’s scheduled Dhaka tour.
Team Analysis
“We are currently reviewing it (invitation),” Rahman told reporters after High Commissioner Dinesh Trivedi paid a courtesy call on him five weeks after his arrival as the Indian envoy here.
In a post on X, the Indian High Commission in Dhaka said the envoy “reaffirmed India’s commitment to a positive, constructive and forward-looking partnership with Bangladesh, rooted in mutual interest and mutual benefit, and to deepening people-centric cooperation across all sectors.”
He also met State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shama Obaed Islam for a wide-ranging exchange on strengthening bilateral ties, it added.
Rahman said the premier has received several invitations for overseas visits, while he is scheduled to attend the UN General Assembly in New York.
“So, we have to consider all these engagements together,” he added.
Trivedi, who arrived in Bangladesh on June 12, 2026, and presented his credentials to the then-President Mohammed Shahabuddin on June 25, said this visit is “entirely an issue of (Bangladesh) prime minister’s prerogative and decision. But on our part, we could say we are eagerly looking forward to welcoming the head of the Bangladesh government.”
“We hope the visit will take place very soon,” Trivedi added.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, Rahman said that the two sides agreed that “our two countries’ relations should move forward keeping mutual interests at the forefront and, as I always say, based on sovereign equality.”
The minister, who was joined by the premier’s foreign affairs adviser Humayun Kabir, said there were some “irritants” in Bangladesh-India relations that needed to be addressed.
“He (envoy) knows about them, and I know about them. It is very important that these irritants are addressed,” Rahman said.
“We will discuss all the issues between our two countries in the coming days,” he said when asked if the issue of returning deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina from India was discussed.
Hasina, 78, has been living in India since she fled Dhaka following the collapse of her government in August 2024 in the face of a massive anti-government agitation.
Dhaka has been urging New Delhi to extradite her to face the law.
Trivedi described his meeting with the foreign minister as “very good” and said he was looking forward to a relationship “firmly founded on mutual benefit and stronger people-to-people ties”.
The two sides initiated efforts to stabilise the relations after Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, accompanied by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, represented India at the inauguration of Tarique Rahman as the prime minister in Dhaka on February 17.
Rahman became the prime minister following his party’s landslide victory in the parliamentary polls. Hasina’s Awami League party was barred from contesting the polls.
In April, Foreign Minister Rahman visited India as part of efforts to repair the strained bilateral ties following more than 18 months of heightened diplomatic tension.
It was the first high-level visit to India by a senior member of the new Bangladesh Nationalist Party government.
Match Outlook
The envoy said the engagement could expand across diverse areas, including culture, music and cricket, describing the current interaction as only the beginning of deeper cooperation.
The relations between India and Bangladesh witnessed a major downturn after the interim government headed by Muhammad Yunus came to power following the collapse of Hasina’s government in August, 2024.
Asked if Bangladesh’s “growing engagement” with China could cause concern in Washington or affect relations with other partners, Rahman rejected a zero-sum interpretation of Dhaka’s diplomacy.
“Our relationship with one country is not a zero-sum game in the context of our relationship with another country. We will never strengthen relations with one country at the expense of another,” he said.
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PM Modi first invited his Bangladesh counterpart to visit India along with his family in February. Modi sent the subsequent special invitation last week to attend the upcoming BRICS Summit, according to officials here.
