New Delhi: Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s upcoming visit to Dhaka for the next round of India-Bangladesh foreign office consultations has been described as a positive development for bilateral ties by observers.
During his weekly media briefing here on Friday, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal confirmed that Misri will be traveling to Bangladesh on December 9 to participate in the consultations.
“Foreign office consultations led by the Foreign Secretary is a structured engagement between India and Bangladesh,” Jaiswal said. “We look forward to this meeting.”
He further stated that Misri will be discussing all matters of mutual interest.
“Aside from meeting his counterpart, he will have several other meetings,” Jaiswal said.
While Misri will be heading the Indian delegation during the foreign office consultations, the Bangladeshi side will be led by his counterpart Jashim Uddin.
Misri’s visit comes at a time when bilateral ties between India and Bangladesh are poised delicately following the regime change in Dhaka earlier this year. On August 5, Hasina was ousted from power following a mass uprising in protest against what people called her authoritarian style of governance. The next day, Bangladesh President Mohammad Shahabuddin dissolved the country’s parliament and on August 8 installed an interim government headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus as Chief Adviser.
With Hasina taking refuge in India, relations between the two South Asian neighbours have since been tense with no high-level visit taking place from either side till now. Meanwhile, the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) of Bangladesh has ordered the extradition of Hasina and many of her associates who fled the country after the upheaval in August.
The ouster of Hasina also saw the rise of extremist Islamist elements in Bangladesh’s political landscape leading to large-scale violence against religious minorities, particularly Hindus. India has been continuously voicing its concerns over these developments.
The arrest of Chinmay Krishna Das, a monk at a Hindu temple in Chittagong, on sedition charges also drew a strong protest from New Delhi. Dhaka responded by saying that India was interfering in Bangladesh’s internal affairs.
Meanwhile, Das’s bail hearing has been postponed to January next year as no lawyer is willing to represent him.
Responding to a question about Das’s case during his briefing, spokesperson Jaiswal said: “As far as the situation on the ground regarding the individual that you mentioned (is concerned), we want to reiterate our position again that they have legal rights. We hope that these legal rights will be respected and that the trial will be fair and transparent.”
Meanwhile, in India, in response to the attacks on minorities in the eastern neighbour, protestors burnt the national flag of Bangladesh in front of that country’s Deputy High Commission in Kolkata. In Agartala, the Bangladesh Assistant High Commission came under attack from members of a group. The Bangladesh government has since recalled the chiefs of both these missions to Dhaka for consultations.
Meanwhile, the Daily Messenger news portal cited Bangladesh Foreign Ministry spokesperson and Director General of the Public Diplomacy Wing, Mohammad Rafiqul Alam, as saying that, during the foreign office consultations next week, key topics slated to figure include trade, visa, connectivity, border killings, and water-sharing, underscoring the comprehensive scope of the high-level talks.
Responding to queries about delays in reviewing all previous agreements between Bangladesh and India, the spokesperson attributed the postponement to the interim government’s operational challenges. However, he gave the assurance that all deals will be reviewed and unveiled in coordination with relevant ministries once the situation stabilized. It may be mentioned here that work on all India-financed projects in Bangladesh has stalled since the change of regime in August.
The issue of Hasina’s extradition from India might also come up during the foreign office consultations.
“There is scope for discussion on the matter,” Toufique Hasan, also a spokesperson of the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry, had said during a media briefing on November 21.
According to Prabir De, Professor at the New Delhi-based Research and Information System for Developing Nations (RIS) think tank, the visit of Misri to Bangladesh is a positive development for India-Bangladesh bilateral relations.
“Bangladesh and India are neighbours,” De told ETV Bharat. “You can change your friends and even your religion but you can’t change your neighbour. Bangladesh knows this very well.”
He explained that Bangladesh is trying to meet a target of $1 trillion GDP by early next decade. The country’s current GDP stands $451 billion.
“If Bangladesh wants to meet the $1-trillion target, it needs India on its side,” De said. “Bangladesh will also be elevating to a developing nation on January 1, 2026.”
He said that Bangladesh’s economy is based on exports, especially readymade garments.
“So, Bangladesh should come back to its normal course of development,” De said. “Social disharmony in Bangladesh is a great threat to the country’s rise to $1 trillion GDP as well as for the entire South Asian region.”
He further stated that India wants Bangladesh to come back to its growth path which will be good for the entire region.
“The current situation in Bangladesh is not conducive for growth,” De stated. “The Foreign Secretary’s visit should be utilised in a better way by Bangladesh.”
Bangladeshi academic and political observer Sharin Shajahan Naomi also described Misri’s upcoming visit to Bangladesh as a positive development.
“India has seen worse times than this in Bangladesh in the aftermath of the assassination of the country’s founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,” Naomi told ETV Bharat over phone from Dhaka. “But even at that time, India had maintained its functional relations with Bangladesh. Due to this, then President Ziaur Rahman had visited India.”
Naomi believes that the current situation is not as bad as that time and so it is possible to improve the bilateral relationship. She also referred to India’s initiating a dialogue with China and recently coming to an agreement with the northern neighbour to resolve the border conflict in eastern Ladakh.
“India knows how to navigate through these challenges,” she said. “This might be the beginning of a new phase in India-Bangladesh relations.”
Naomi said that on Friday too, there were protests against India in Dhaka. But the authorities deployed adequate law enforcement personnel so that the protestors could not reach the Indian High Commission.
“There are groups within Bangladesh that want the relationship with India to deteriorate,” she said. “The Bangladesh interim government should not get carried away by the emotions promoted by such groups.”
She said that Bangladesh has other challenges like Rohingya refugees, climate change and floods.
“So, Bangladesh cannot afford to have bad relations with India,” she said. “Bangladesh needs India to face these challenges.”
