Dhaka: India’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh Dinesh Trivedi met the country’s prime minister Tarique Rahman in Dhaka amid tensions between the two neighbours over Sheikh Hasina’s recent press interaction from New Delhi.
Trivedi had earlier met Bangladesh’s foreign minister, Dr Khalilur Rahman, and foreign affairs adviser to the prime minister, Humayun Kabir.
India has invited the Bangladesh prime minister to attend the BRICS summit next month as the current Chair of the BIMSTEC (The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation).
While tension was building up between New Delhi and Dhaka ever since Hasina took shelter in India, matters came to a head last week after the former Bangladesh prime minister interacted with the media at an event organised by the Foreign Correspondents Club of South Asia.
Bangladesh labelled the event as an affront to its sovereignty while New Delhi has maintained that it played no role in its organisation and did not endorse the statements made at the press meet.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that the programme was organised by a private entity and New Delhi had “no involvement in the event” and did not endorse the views expressed during it.
Dhaka doesn’t seem to have been fully convinced with this.
Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana fled to India on August 5, 2024 after student-led protesters marched towards her official residence in Dhaka. In 2025, a Bangladeshi court sentenced her to death on charges of crimes against humanity for ordering a crackdown on the uprising. Hasina has denied any wrongdoing.
Bangladesh has repeatedly sought Hasina’s extradition, but India has so far declined to hand her over.
Amidst this situation, Trivedi is doing his best to maintain a conciliatory tone and has even extended his support to Rahman, as reported by NDTV.
Speaking at the opening of a play area for children of visa applicants at the Indian Visa Application Centre in Dhaka, the Indian envoy said he remained confident about the relationship between New Delhi and Dhaka.
“The Prime Minister of Bangladesh… we all respect him a lot. I have listened to his speeches many times, and he talks from his heart. This, I have seen. He is a people’s person. And our prime minister is also of the people,” Trivedi told reporters.
He also indicated that dialogue remains the way forward, saying that “problems are sorted out when we talk to each other”.
“I feel that when… when two leaders meet, a lot of problems are solved. Problems are sorted out when we talk to each other. And I have full confidence that people are together, and a solution will definitely happen… it will happen. I am very confident. There is nothing negative here; everything is positive,” Trivedi said.
