Bangladesh seeks a post-Hasina “reset” in ties with India, calling the previous relationship “uncomfortable” while urging Dhaka to move beyond what it describes as “India fascination”.
Bangladesh wants to “reset” its relationship with India and build a new bilateral engagement based on mutual interests, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir said on Sunday. He also described Bangladesh-India ties during deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure as “uncomfortable”.
Kobir’s remarks came two days after Bangladesh said Prime Minister Tarique Rahman would not attend the BRICS Summit in India as he was not invited in his capacity as Bangladesh’s prime minister. The invitation was instead extended to the chair of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).
The two-day BRICS Summit concluded on Sunday. India had invited Rahman to attend the summit as BIMSTEC chair, while a separate bilateral invitation had been extended to him in February.
“We want to move towards a new relationship, which should be done through bilateral discussions, not through a multilateral forum,” Kobir told reporters.
Relations between India and Bangladesh have remained strained after New Delhi provided refuge to Hasina, who fled to India after being ousted in a youth-led agitation in August 2024.
Kobir said Bangladesh should move beyond what he called an “excessive preoccupation” with India and adopt a more balanced approach focused on mutual interests.
“We have to get out of the India fascination. India is just another country, and Bangladesh wants good bilateral relations with it,” he said.
Responding to a question, Kobir said, “Breakfast in India, lunch in India, dinner in India — then when will you eat your own food?”
