Bangladesh wants to “reset” its ties with India and establish a new bilateral relationship centred on mutual interests, the country’s state minister for foreign affairs Humaiun Kobir said, adding that the relationship during the tenure of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina was “uncomfortable”.
“We have to get out of the India fascination.
The remarks came days after Bangladesh said that Prime Minister Tarique Rahman would not attend the BRICS Summit in India as he was not “properly invited” to the event. “We want to move towards a new relationship, which should be done through bilateral discussions, not through a multilateral forum,” he said. Kobir said Bangladesh should move away from what he called an “excessive preoccupation” with India and deal with New Delhi in a more balanced way. He said the focus should remain on shared interests and be viewed as part of its broader ties with other countries. Replying to a question, the minister said, “Breakfast in India, lunch in India, dinner in India — then when will you eat your own food? India is just another country, and Bangladesh wants good bilateral relations with it,” he said. “What I said was mainly applicable to India. We want to build a good working bilateral relationship with India,” he said.
Nurul Islam Moni, the chief whip of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in parliament, said on Friday that Dhaka was reviewing 101 agreements signed with India.
