Bangladesh Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman is arriving in India today, April 7, on a three-day official visit. Rahman will meet National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar during the visit.
Rahman meets Doval on the first day of his first visit on Tuesday. He will meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar later on Wednesday. Rahman may also meet Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.
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This is the first high-level contact of the new government in Dhaka, led by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, to Delhi in February.
Khalilur Rahman is visiting India at a time when the two sides are rebuilding relations after tensions witnessed under the interim leadership led by Nobel laureate Mohammed Yunus. Rahman was the NSA in the interim government led by Yunus.
What’s on the agenda?
Rahman will hold bilateral talks in New Delhi and then travel to Mauritius to attend the Indian Ocean Conference hosted by the Mauritian government.
He will meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister in Delhi Hardeep Singh Puri.
The visit will focus on Bangladesh’s deteriorating energy scenario amid the ongoing war in West Asia and the resulting crisis in the global energy market.
On March 10, India delivered a shipment of high-speed diesel to Bangladesh amid reports of an urgent demand for diesel and other petroleum products.
Rahman will be accompanied by Humayun Kabir, adviser to the prime minister on foreign affairs, according to the Bangladeshi daily. Prothom Hello. It will be the first visit by a Bangladeshi foreign minister to India since 2024.
Treaty on the Ganges Waters
The two sides are also expected to revive the recovery issue Treaty on the Ganges Waterswho will turn 30 this December, the report said.
In recent weeks, the focus has been on renewing the three-decade-old Ganges water-sharing treaty, signed in December 1996. Rahman was the national security adviser to the Yunus-led interim government. In November 2025, he visited India and met NSA Ajit Doval in New Delhi.
India Bangladesh ties
Ties between Delhi and Dhaka deteriorated further after the 2024 ouster of Sheikh Hasina and subsequent violence against Hindus, a substantial minority in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.
In January 2025, the lynching and public burning of 25-year-old Hindu Dipu Chandra Das in Bangladesh sparked protests in India in Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad and other cities calling for minority protection and strong diplomatic action.
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But lately the two neighbors have been exchanging comments in a spirit of mutual understanding. Prime minister Narendra Modi he was among the first global leaders to congratulate Tarique Rahman after the BNP’s victory. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla attended the swearing-in on 17 February.
On March 25, on the occasion of the anniversary of the infamous Operation searchlight of 1971 by the Pakistan Army, which claimed the lives of millions of Bangladeshi citizens, Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman paid tribute to the victims of the atrocities committed by the Pakistan Army.
After his remarks, Ministry of Foreign Affairs(MEA) on 27 March 2026 stated that Operation Searchlight and the subsequent violence in 1971 led to the “murder of millions of innocent Bangladeshi people and mass sexual crimes against women”.
On Monday, India’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pranay Verma called on Bangladeshi Prime Minister Tarique Rahman. He led discussions on ties between New Delhi and Dhaka, focusing on people-centric cooperation across multiple areas in line with the national development priorities of both countries.
On April 3rd Bangladesh High Commissioner to IndiaRiaz Hamidullah, discussed defense cooperation with Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi.
Hamidullah and General Dwivedi discussed strengthening bilateral defense cooperation, including joint training initiatives.
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last month Director General of Intelligence Major General Kaiser Chowdhury visited India and met his counterpart Lt Gen RS Raman as well as Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) chief Parag Jain and NSA Ajit Doval.
