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Dhaka. Bangladesh said on Sunday that it wants to improve its relations with India and build new bilateral relations based on mutual interests. This statement by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Humayun Kabir comes two days after Bangladesh announced on Thursday that Prime Minister Tariq Rahman will not participate in the BRICS Summit to be held in India because he was not invited for the event.

Tariq Rehman did not come even after receiving the invitation

Instead the invitation was sent to the Chairman of BIMSTEC. The two-day long BRICS summit concluded on Sunday. India had invited Rahman to attend the summit in his capacity as chair of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), while a separate bilateral invitation had also been sent to him since February. Kabir told reporters here that Bangladesh wants to restart its bilateral relations with India. He said that we want to move towards a new relationship, and this work should be done through bilateral negotiations, and not through any multilateral platform.

The two-day long BRICS summit concluded on Sunday. India had invited Rahman to attend the summit in his capacity as chair of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), while a separate bilateral invitation had also been sent to him since February.

Kabir told reporters here that Bangladesh wanted to “start afresh” its bilateral relations with India. “We want to move towards a new relationship, and this should be done through bilateral dialogue, not through any multilateral forum,” he said. Hasina had come to India after being removed from power in a youth-led movement in August 2024. Relations between India and Bangladesh have come under strain due to New Delhi granting them asylum.

Kabir said Bangladesh should move beyond its “extreme bias” towards India and look at its relations with New Delhi in a balanced manner. They should focus on mutual interests and consider it as a part of their broader relations with other countries. “We have to get out of focusing too much on India. India is also a normal country and Bangladesh wants good bilateral relations with it,” he said.

Responding to a question, the minister said, “Breakfast in India, lunch in India, dinner in India — then when will you eat your food?” His reference was that if we think about India all the time, then when will Bangladesh pay attention to its issues. Kabir also said that Prime Minister Rehman will leave for New York on September 21 to attend the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly and will stay there till September 26. Asked about the possibility of a meeting between Rahman and US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, he said such meetings are often scheduled at the last minute during major international conferences.