Trade and the Ganga Water Treaty are likely to figure in the agenda
Published : 18 Sep 2026, 10:32 AM
India and Bangladesh have resumed official-level talks to map out Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s visit to New Delhi after a brief disruption in ties, The Hindu reports, citing diplomatic sources.
Diplomatic relations hit a bump after a virtual press conference by ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August sparked backlash in Bangladesh, the Indian daily said on Friday.
Hasina currently lives in an “undisclosed location” in India, it added.
Officials from both sides have reportedly continued meetings in Dhaka to frame an agenda focusing on restoring bilateral trade hit by political volatility and addressing the renewal of the Ganga Water Treaty, among other issues.
Sources in Dhaka told the newspaper that Tarique is scheduled to travel to New York for the United Nations General Assembly this month, followed by several diplomatic engagements in October and November.
Efforts are under way to arrange his Delhi visit during a suitable window in November, The Hindu said.
Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Dinesh Trivedi has held meetings with several officials in recent days, including Water Resources Minister Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anee and Prime Minister’s Advisor Mahdi Amin, it added.
Tarique had been invited to the recently held BRICS Summit in his capacity as chair of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), but Bangladesh did not send a representative.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir said Bangladesh was planning to “reset” ties with India and would prioritise a bilateral visit at a “conducive” moment.
The Hindu had earlier reported that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) government viewed the cancellation of a programme by supporters of Hasina’s Awami League earlier this month as a “positive sign”.
Hasina has been based in India since fleeing Dhaka on Aug 5, 2024.
Bangladesh’s foreign ministry had expressed “outrage” over her latest virtual press conference, in which she alleged that law and order had broken down in Bangladesh.
Over the past two years, Hasina and several of her former ministers and officials have received death sentences from the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in Dhaka over their alleged roles in the crackdown against protesters in July-August 2024, which ultimately brought down her government.
Tarique's Emissaries
Sources within the current dispensation in Dhaka told The Hindu that Tarique had maintained contact with India during his years in exile in London, even though Hasina's fall, the newspaper said, was seen as “unexpected”.
They said he had reportedly received an indication in February 2024 that New Delhi too was not expecting the Hasina government to last beyond a few months.
The Hindu was told that Tarique's personal contacts with Indian officials were renewed at least since February 2024, when he sent an emissary to India to gauge New Delhi's mood following the widely criticised January 2024 election, which the BNP boycotted under his leadership.
The engagement was reportedly in line with earlier exchanges between the BNP and India during Hasina's tenure between 2009 and 2024.
Two months before the January 2024 election, current Energy Minister Iqbal Hassan Mahmood Tuku had visited the Indian capital.
In an interview with The Hindu, Tuku had urged India to extend "unambiguous support to the democratic aspirations" of the people of Bangladesh.
In a similar vein in 2018, a three-member team comprising Abdul Awal Mintoo, Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury and Kobir had visited New Delhi to engage with the Indian government.
The Hindu cited a report by the Daily Star that reportedly said the 2018 visit came on Tarique's instruction to his party to carry out a course correction, as “the hostile policy towards India was wrong and misguided”.
