India names Modi party colleague envoy to Bangladesh as ties thaw

New Delhi helped ⁠Bangladesh win independence from Pakistan in 1971. Bangladesh's foreign minister visited Delhi this month seeking ⁠increased fuel and ⁠fertiliser supplies, closer energy cooperation and eased travel restrictions, but one of the biggest sticking points remains India’s refusal so far ‌to extradite Hasina.

India named veteran politician Dinesh ​Trivedi as its next high commissioner ​to Bangladesh on Monday, in ‌a rare ​appointment of a non–foreign service officer as New Delhi seeks to reset ties with its eastern neighbour. Ties between the ‌countries soured after a popular uprising forced Bangladesh’s long-serving Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to New Delhi in 2024, where she remains. Trivedi’s appointment highlights India’s push to ‌rebuild trust with Bangladesh as it faces stiff competition from China for influence and ‌business.

Trivedi, 75, a former railways and health minister, joined Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in 2021 from a regional party in West Bengal, a border state that plays a key role ⁠in India’s ​ties with Bangladesh ⁠and where Modi has been seeking to expand his party’s influence in ongoing local elections. "He is expected ⁠to take up the assignment shortly,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement ​about Trivedi.

Relations between the two countries began improving only after an election in ⁠February brought Tarique Rahman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party to power, replacing an interim government that had ⁠veered ​strongly towards China. Bangladesh was part of India in the colonial era and became East Pakistan at the end of British rule in 1947. New Delhi helped ⁠Bangladesh win independence from Pakistan in 1971.

Bangladesh's foreign minister visited Delhi this month seeking ⁠increased fuel and ⁠fertiliser supplies, closer energy cooperation and eased travel restrictions, but one of the biggest sticking points remains India’s refusal so far ‌to extradite Hasina.