Bangladesh seeks more ‘diplomatic room’ with Pakistan outreach amid India concerns

For many years, India was a key training ground for many of Bangladesh’s senior officials, as well as a source of support and regional guidance. Now, some are being trained in Pakistan, a symbolic shift that has unsettled New Delhi and offered an early clue to how Dhaka’s new government wants to deal with its neighbours.

A delegation of 12 senior Bangladeshi bureaucrats attended an executive training programme at the Civil Services Academy in Lahore from 4 May to 21 May, a move analysts said reflected Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s attempt to give Bangladesh more diplomatic room after years of close alignment with India under ousted former leader Sheikh Hasina.

The outreach comes as India closely watches Bangladesh’s foreign policy direction, particularly the normalisation of ties with Pakistan and the growing domestic influence of Islamist parties such as Jamaat-e-Islami, which Delhi fears could revive security concerns along its eastern flank.

Indian observers noted that only a small number of officials had gone to Pakistan, while Delhi continued to host multiple Bangladeshi delegations across areas including e-governance, public policy and education.

At the same time, Rahman’s government has moved to reset diplomatic ties with India after an extended period of strain under a previous interim government.

Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman visited Delhi last month, the first high-level political engagement between the two countries after the new government in Dhaka took office following elections in February.

“What the Bangladesh government is trying is a balancing act in the region,” said Sreeradha Datta, a professor of international relations at OP Jindal Global University in India’s Haryana state.

While there was an “emotive element” between India and the previous Bangladeshi government under Hasina which enjoyed robust ties, Dhaka was now likely to be more businesslike to ensure mutually beneficial deals, she said.

The two countries have resumed visa services, albeit in a phased manner. India also provided urgent energy aid to Bangladesh – part of a bilateral agreement – supplying additional diesel to help Dhaka manage critical fuel shortages amid the Iran war crisis.

“They want to work with India. There is no disagreement about that,” Datta said. “Bangladeshi officials realise that they need India’s support to shore up [the country’s] economy.”

Bangladesh has been facing a multipronged economic crisis characterised by slowing growth, depleted foreign reserves, and severe inflation which has been exacerbated by soaring fuel and fertiliser prices.

Analysts say Pakistan’s economy, which struggles with chronic difficulties, lacks the production capacity and commercial infrastructure needed to meet Bangladesh’s import demands.

According to Datta, Pakistan has been extremely keen to establish relations with Bangladesh and that is why the new administration in Dhaka went ahead with the civil servants’ training programme, as it saw no harm in such cooperation.

Observers say Bangladesh’s policy moves, such as training civil servants in Pakistan, do not mean the country has forgotten how it fought for independence in a 1971 liberation war to break free from decades of political, economic and cultural oppression by West Pakistan.

Priyajit Debsarkar, a London-based author who writes on South Asia, notes that two streams of broad opinion exist in Bangladesh: one conservative, aligned with the country’s freedom fighters, and another leaning towards Islamic fundamentalists who seek deeper cooperation with Pakistan.

The latter supported the idea of an Islamic Uma, which meant a configuration of different countries under Pakistani leadership, he said.

“However, this is a very tricky proposition for the country because when it came recently to the energy crisis during the Iran war, or aid during the Covid-19 pandemic, it was India who had reached out and helped Bangladesh,” Debsarkar said.

For Uday Chandra, professor of political science at India’s Ashoka University, Dhaka’s new playbook indicates it wants to strengthen its own position rather than seek a radical reset of the country.

“The new government is trying to create more diplomatic room for itself after the Hasina years. This means visible outreach to China and Pakistan,” Chandra said.

Bangladesh asked China earlier this month to help with a Teesta River restoration project, which passes close to the Siliguri Corridor, a narrow strip of land known as the “Chicken’s Neck” that links India’s remote northeast region to the mainland.

Experts say Bangladesh’s outreach is bound to raise India’s security concerns.

“The concern now is that Dhaka may use China and Pakistan as bargaining chips to renegotiate its relationship with Delhi,” Chandra said. “India clearly needs a new Bangladesh policy, one that is less dependent on any party or politician and, at the same time, more attentive to Bangladeshi public opinion.”

According to Chandra, Dhaka’s new administration is likely to take a tougher public posture on issues such as borders, water sharing and Hasina’s presence in India, where she has been living since leaving Bangladesh in August 2024.

However, he pointed out that geography, trade, energy and regional connectivity still tied Bangladesh closely to India.

Bangladesh’s location, the overlapping of natural supply chains, and shorter transport routes make sourcing from and trading with India highly efficient and mutually beneficial, experts say.

The country has traditionally relied on India for a substantial portion of its food security, such as onions, wheat and rice, as well as the supply of raw cotton and yarn for its US$50-billion ready-made garment sector.

“Dhaka will cooperate with India where the benefits are clear such as fuel, fertilisers and electricity generation,” Chandra said.