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India invites Bangladesh PM Tarique Rahman to BRICS Summit as special guest
India has invited Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman to attend the BRICS Summit in New Delhi in September as a special guest.
The government has invited Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman to attend the BRICS Summit in New Delhi in September as a special guest, though there was no word from Dhaka on whether the invitation had been accepted, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
The invitation was conveyed to Dhaka this week, and Bangladesh — which is not a member of BRICS and does not have observer status with the grouping — is among a handful of countries whose leaders have been invited to the summit as special guests, the people said.
India, the current chair of BRICS, is set to host the summit in New Delhi from September 12-13. The Bangladeshi side is yet to take a call on Rahman’s participation in the summit, the people said.
Bangladesh’s deputy foreign minister Shama Obaid told reporters in Dhaka on Thursday that the invitation letter from the Indian side had been forwarded to the Prime Minister’s Office, which would decide on the matter.
This is the second instance of New Delhi sending an invitation to Rahman to visit the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sent an invitation to Rahman when Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla travelled to Dhaka in February to attend the Bangladesh premier’s swearing-in ceremony. Rahman chose Malaysia and China for his first foreign visits last month.
If Rahman accepts the invitation to attend the BRICS Summit, it will set up his first visit to the country at a time when the two sides are working to normalise their ties, which had fallen to an all-time low under Bangladesh’s interim administration led by Muhammad Yunus. Former premier Sheikh Hasina has lived in India since the fall of her government in August 2024, and her presence in the country has been an irritant in bilateral relations, especially after Dhaka’s requests for her extradition.
Rahman’s visit to China reflected his government’s “Bangladesh First” policy, which marked a departure from Hasina’s position of giving India primacy in her foreign policy.
The invitation for Rahman also comes at a time when the Bangladesh government is set to send foreign secretary Asadullah Alam Siam as the new high commissioner to India, the people said. The current envoy to New Delhi, Riaz Hamidullah, who has been in his position for a little more than 15 months, is expected to be posted to Geneva.
The change is being seen as part of Bangladesh’s efforts to rebuild bilateral ties after the Indian government recently sent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Dinesh Trivedi as the high commissioner to Dhaka. Trivedi is one of only two political appointees holding an ambassadorial position, and his appointment was seen as a reflection of the importance attached by India to relations with Bangladesh.
