New Delhi: India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval met his Bangladesh counterpart Khalilur Rahman Wednesday, the first meeting of senior officials of the two countries since former Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina, who is currently taking refuge in India, was sentenced to death.
Bangladesh NSA Rahman arrived in New Delhi Tuesday evening, a day ahead of schedule. He was set to travel to India the following day for the Colombo Security Conclave (CSC) meet called by Doval in the Indian capital on 20 November.
Both sides were tight-lipped about any bilateral meeting between NSAs Doval and Rahman in the originally scheduled visit. Rahman was expected to attend a dinner hosted by India’s NSA Wednesday, before attending the CSC Thursday and then depart for Dhaka.
“Bangladesh delegation to the seventh NSA-level meeting of the Colombo Security Conclave (CSC) led by the National Security Adviser Dr Khalilur Rahman, met with the National Security Adviser of India Ajit Doval, and his team today in (New) Delhi. They discussed work of the CSC and key bilateral issues,” a statement published by the Bangladesh High Commission to India said.
During the meeting Wednesday, Khalilur Rahman invited NSA Ajit Doval to Bangladesh.
Rahman is only the second senior official of the interim government to travel to New Delhi since Hasina’s ouster in August 2024. His visit comes barely 48 hours after the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh was sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal-Bangladesh (ICT-B) for “crimes against humanity”.
Hasina was convicted in cases arising from her government’s attempt to suppress the student demonstrations in Bangladesh between June and August 2024. Her Home Minister Asaduzzaman Kamal Khan was also sentenced to death by the ICT-B. Hasina fled Dhaka on 5 August 2024 for New Delhi and has since remained in the national capital.
Dhaka Monday appealed to India for her return, while declaring that any country providing her shelter is committing an “intolerant act and a disregard for justice”. The two countries have an extradition treaty. However, questions over the process of the trial remain as reported by ThePrint.
Political ties between India and Bangladesh have soured in the year since Hasina’s ouster. However, several bilateral engagements have continued to operate. In December 2024, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri travelled to Dhaka for Foreign Office consultations. NSA Rahman’s visit to New Delhi for the CSC is a further sign of the continuing engagement between the two administrations at different levels.
However, at the highest levels, Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus has yet to be invited to India for a visit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Yunus on the margins of the BIMSTEC Summit in Thailand earlier this year—the first between the two leaders.
Tensions have risen between the two neighbouring countries in recent weeks, especially after Hasina gave a number of interviews to media organisations. This led to Dhaka summoning India’s Deputy High Commissioner Pawan Badhe last week to lodge a protest over the former prime minister’s access to media in New Delhi.
Before Rahman, earlier in the year Dhaka’s Energy Adviser Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan visited India for the India Energy Week (IEW), according to media reports.
The seventh NSA-level meetings of the CSC will see participation from all members of the organisation including Maldives, Mauritius and Sri Lanka, apart from Rahman from Bangladesh. Seychelles will also attend the meeting as an observer, while Malaysia has been invited as a “guest”.
“The CSC was formed to promote closer cooperation between member states on vital matters of security and to strengthen partnership for enhancing regional security in the Indian Ocean region,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement Wednesday.
The statement added: “In keeping with this vision and objective, the 7th Meeting of the NSAs will be an opportunity for the participants to review the activities under the different pillars of cooperation, namely: Maritime Safety and Security; Countering Terrorism and Radicalisation; Combating Transnational Organised Crime; Cyber Security and Protection of Critical Infrastructure and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief, and (to) discuss the Roadmap and Action Plan for 2026.”
The last NSA-level meeting of the CSC was held in December 2023 in Mauritius. In August 2024, the member states met in Colombo for the signing ceremony of the founding documents of the CSC.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)