New Delhi: Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman is unlikely to attend the BRICS Summit in September amid fresh tensions over former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s media event in New Delhi last week. According to Bangladeshi news outlet Prothom Alo, the possibility of Rahman attending the BRICS session had “effectively vanished” following the latest developments.
BRICS is an intergovernmental organization of major economies, and includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. Bangladesh is not a member, but officially joined the BRICS-established New Development Bank (NDB) in September 2021 as one of its first new non-founding members.
Prime Minister Modi had invited Rahman, in his capacity as the current chairman of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), to attend on 12 and 13 September. The invitation was conveyed in a diplomatic letter sent on 14 July to the Bangladesh foreign ministry through the Indian High Commission in Dhaka.
Bangladesh Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed had earlier said after the Hasina speech that India “cannot play the Hasina card and seek friendly relations with Bangladesh; the two are contradictory”.
Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Dinesh Trivedi is to call on Prime Minister Tarique Rahman in Dhaka Monday to smooth out differences. Trivedi met Bangladesh Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman Sunday for the second time at a closed door event. In an interaction with the press later, Trivedi said, “I feel that when the two leaders meet, many problems are resolved. Problems are solved when we talk to each other. I firmly believe that the people are one. There will be a solution. There is nothing negative here. Everything is positive.”
He then added: “We all have great respect for Bangladesh’s prime minister. I have heard his speeches many times. He is a people-friendly person. Our prime minister is also a people-friendly person.”
Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina had made a speech at New Delhi’s Foreign Correspondent’s Club during a video interaction last week, claiming that law and order had vanished in the country, the economy was in ruins and that her homecoming in December would be “a duty” to the citizens of Bangladesh.
In a terse statement, the Bangladesh government had criticised India for allowing her to make the comments, calling it “deeply hurtful to people’s sentiment and detrimental to the development of harmonious bilateral relations between Bangladesh and India”.
“Bangladesh is outraged that the absconding convicted genocider Sheikh Hasina was allowed this evening to engage in live interaction with the media in New Delhi where she and her henchmen launched venomous vitriol against the State of Bangladesh and her people,” the statement read.
Prior to the event, India’s foreign ministry had clarified that Hasina’s second virtual interaction has “no involvement of the Indian government”.
“The interaction is being organised by a private media entity. The government has no involvement whatsoever in it. Neither does it endorse any views that may be expressed at the forum,” the Ministry of External Affairs said last week.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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