Bangladesh undecided on Tarique Rahman India visit as Hasina extradition hangs

Dhaka,UPDATED: Aug 21, 2026 22:24 IST

Bangladesh has not yet decided whether Prime Minister Tarique Rahman will visit India next month alongside the BRICS summit, his office said on Friday, amid continuing uncertainty over the proposed trip to New Delhi.

The remarks come as Dhaka signals that any top-level visit will depend on its national interest and on the broader bilateral atmosphere, with Bangladesh also awaiting India's response to its request to extradite deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina and "other fugitive criminals" staying in India.

"No decision has been made yet on his India visit," Prime Minister's Press Secretary AAM Saleh Shibly told PTI. He said Bangladesh was waiting for New Delhi's response to its extradition request.

Shibly's comments came a day after state-run BSS quoted the premier's foreign affairs adviser Humayun Kobir as saying Dhaka was in "no hurry to arrange a top-level visit without clearly defined national interests". "There is no justification for rushing into a top-level visit by going beyond the national interest," Kobir said.

In recent weeks, Indian High Commissioner Dinesh Trivedi met Bangladesh's top political leadership, including Rahman, and stressed the need to create a conducive environment to take bilateral ties forward. On Monday, Trivedi said the Bangladesh premier's visit to India should take place much sooner despite "our differences". "Issues can only be sorted out by meeting, and I am very hopeful," he said at a dinner hosted in his honour by the honorary consul general of a European country.

Bangladesh's foreign ministry had earlier said Dhaka wanted a "favourable and propitious environment" before any top-level trip. It said weeks of diplomatic discussions on the possible bilateral visit were severely disrupted and complicated by Hasina's virtual press conference on August 5, 2026.

Hasina, 78, was removed from power in August 2024 after violent student-led protests and has been living in India since fleeing Dhaka on August 5 that year. The interim regime led by Muhammad Yunus later tried her in absentia in a special tribunal and awarded the death penalty for ordering a deadly crackdown on the protesters.

Also on Friday, Leader of the Opposition and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami chief Shafiqur Rahman said the prime minister could visit any country, including India, but such visits should be based on "equality, mutual respect and friendship". "The people of this country will no longer accept anyone's hegemony. They want relations with India based on friendship, mutual respect and equality," he told a conference of party leaders in Rajshahi.

For now, Dhaka has kept the proposed India visit undecided, with Bangladesh linking any such engagement to national interest, the overall diplomatic climate and its pending extradition request concerning Hasina and others staying in India.

With PTI Inputs

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