What happened?
In his second meeting with India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in five months, Bangladesh’s interim government foreign affairs adviser, Mohammad Touhid Hossain, urged India to agree to a foreign secretaries’ meeting under the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) framework—a meeting that has not taken place in nine years. The request was made, according to the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry’s readout, when Hossain spoke to Jaishankar on the sidelines of the Indian Ocean Conference in Oman on 16 February. They had previously met in New York last September.
Why it matters to India:
Bangladesh’s push to revive SAARC and its warming ties with Pakistan poses a strategic challenge for India. While India has promoted the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) as an alternative to SAARC due to concerns over Pakistan’s role in cross-border terrorism, Bangladesh, under interim leader Muhammad Yunus, sees SAARC as a vital platform for regional cooperation. India faces the dilemma of whether to engage with SAARC again, a move that could open up tensions, particularly with Pakistan’s involvement. Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s recent diplomatic overtures toward Pakistan signal a shift in foreign policy, with Islamabad seeking to strengthen relations with Dhaka. This diversification of alliances complicates India’s diplomatic calculations. India now faces the delicate task of balancing its relationship with Bangladesh while ensuring that regional dynamics do not undermine its interests. Notably, Bangladesh’s foreign affairs adviser also “emphasised the importance of initiating the discussion for the renewal of the Ganges Water Treaty.”