Bangladesh Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman is expected to visit India next week, according to multiple media reports.
The visit will be the first official visit by a high-ranking politician from Bangladesh since Prime Minister Tarique Rahman came to power after leading the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to a landslide victory in the 12 February election.
The visit, which comes at a time when both sides are rebuilding ties after the strains witnessed under the caretaker administration led by Nobel laureate Mohammed Yunus, is expected to reset bilateral ties between the two neighbouring nations.
What’s on the agenda
Rahman is expected to hold bilateral meetings in New Delhi and then proceed to Mauritius, where he will attend the Indian Ocean Conference being organised by the Mauritian government, a report in The Hindu said.
Rahman is expected to meet external affairs minister S Jaishankar, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and commerce minister Piyush Goyal on 8 April, a report in Hindustan Times said.
The visit will focus on Bangladesh’s worsening energy scenario amid the ongoing war in West Asia and the resultant crisis in the global energy market.
On 10 March, India supplied a consignment of high-speed diesel to Bangladesh amid reports of an urgent requirement for diesel and other petroleum products. The two sides are also expected to revive the issue of renewing the Ganga Waters Treaty, which will turn 30 in December this year, the report said.
The renewal of the three-decade-old treaty for the sharing of Ganga waters, signed in December 1996, has been in focus in recent weeks. Rahman was the National Security Adviser of the interim government led by Yunus. He visited India in November 2025 and met NSA Ajit Doval in New Delhi.
India Bangladesh Ties
The ties between New Delhi and Dhaka have worsened, more so after Sheikh Hasina’s ouster in 2024 and the subsequent violence against Hindus, a substantial minority in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.
New Delhi had feared that Hasina’s removal from power had created space for groups that are hostile towards India, amid growing anti-India rhetoric and violence in Bangladesh, according to experts on South Asia politics.
In January 2025, lynching and public burning of a 25-year-old Hindu man, Dipu Chandra Das, in Bangladesh, sparked protests in India in New Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad and other cities, calling for the protection of minorities and strong diplomatic action.
But of late, the two neighbours had been exchanging comments in keeping with the spirit of mutual understanding. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first global leaders to congratulate Tarique Rahman after BNP’s victory. Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla attended the swearing-in on 17 February.
On 25 March, marking the anniversary of the infamous Operation Searchlight of 1971 by the Pakistan military that left millions of citizens of Bangladesh dead, Bangladesh PM Tarique Rahman had paid tribute to the victims of the Pakistani military’s atrocities.
India supports Bangladesh’s desire for justice.
Following his remarks, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on 27 March 2026 said that Operation Searchlight and the resultant violence in its aftermath in 1971, led to the “murder of millions of innocent Bangladeshi people and mass sexual crimes against women”.
“These atrocities shook the conscience of the world. Pakistan, however, remains in denial to this very day of its crimes. We support Bangladesh in its desire for justice,” MEA official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, adding that “India supports Bangladesh’s desire for justice”.
