Bangladesh said- India did not invite Tariq Rahman as PM in BRICS
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Bangladesh wants to join the defense alliance for which it has not been invited and on the other hand it has rejected two invitations from India.
Bangladesh has publicly expressed several times its desire to join the Mecca Defense Agreement of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye. But Pakistan said on Thursday that at present there is no plan to extend it. Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesperson gave this statement during the weekly press briefing.
When Tariq Rahman became the Prime Minister of Bangladesh in February this year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had invited him to visit New Delhi. Rahman did not come and chose Malaysia for his first foreign tour. After Malaysia, Rahman went to China.
BRICS Summit is going to be held in New Delhi on 12th and 13th September and Tariq Rehman was invited to the BRICS Summit as the Chairman of BIMSTEC. BIMSTEC is a regional organization of seven countries of the Bay of Bengal.
On Thursday, Bangladesh's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Humayun Kabir said that neither Prime Minister Tariq Rahman nor any other representative will go to the BRICS summit held in India.
'The Prime Minister of Bangladesh did not receive the invitation'
Humayun Kabir told journalists at the Foreign Service Academy, "When the environment is favorable and mutual respect is maintained, then there will be bilateral visits. There is no need to rush into it. India had invited the Prime Minister of Bangladesh to attend the BRICS summit as the Chairman of BIMSTEC. This should not be seen as a bilateral invitation. The first visit cannot be multilateral. We are giving more importance to bilateral visits and talks."
That is, after Tariq Rahman became the Prime Minister, Bangladesh did not care about the two invitations received from India. But the question is arising that why Bangladesh is not attending the summit of the BRICS grouping which it wants to become a member of?
Strained relations with India and the Rahman government's efforts to formulate a post-Sheikh Hasina foreign policy are hindering contacts between the two countries. Bangladesh had requested Russia in June to support its bid for membership in BRICS.
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Imran Ahmed, a research fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, told Nikkei Asia, "Tariq Rahman's absence speaks more to the existing problems in India-Bangladesh relations than Bangladesh's withdrawal from BRICS."
It is being said that there may be some disadvantages for Rahman for not attending the BRICS summit. M. Humayun Kabir, former ambassador of Bangladesh to the US and president of the think tank Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, said that the presence of the Prime Minister would have given the new government an opportunity to present its position and its stand before the leaders of countries like Russia and Iran.
Kabir told Nikkei Asia, "For Bangladesh with a new government in the post-2024 situation, being there would have been helpful to present its case or explain how Bangladesh is now thinking differently. Introductions and face-to-face interactions are always very helpful."
What signal is Bangladesh giving?
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The foreign policy of Tariq Rahman's government indicates that Bangladesh is not paying much attention to India-centric policy. Bangladesh is interested in joining the Mecca Joint Agreement signed between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey on August 7. There is a commitment to collective defense in this agreement, under which an attack on any one member will be considered an attack on all members.
Bangladesh has not received an invitation to join this agreement, but has shown interest in it. Ministers and officials have said that they see it as a positive. Security agreements between Islamic countries are not unusual and they believe that this will not affect relations with other partner countries.
Not only the present government of Bangladesh but also the main opposition Jamaat-e-Islami wants to join the Mecca Agreement.
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Shafiqur Rahman said in a statement on August 27, "Joining the Mecca Accord is entirely a sovereign and internal matter of Bangladesh. If Bangladesh takes any decision keeping in mind the needs and interests of the country and its people, then there is no reason for anyone else to be upset or worried about it.
That is, in the matter of India, the thinking of both the opposition and the ruling party of Bangladesh seems to be the same. From this it can be estimated what the common people there think about India. Earlier, there was no such situation in Bangladesh because Sheikh Hasina's Awami League was a force that advocated good relations with India.
Is it in Bangladesh's favor to join the Mecca Agreement?
It is being said that this language of Bangladesh is important because Dhaka has traditionally tried to maintain diplomatic space for itself among competing powers. Recent developments taken together may indicate that Bangladesh is giving less importance to India than before while deciding the direction of its diplomatic relations.
"In my view, the clearest broader signal is not that Bangladesh is moving away from India to China, Pakistan or the Persian Gulf as a new geopolitical bloc, but rather that India is becoming less central to the way Dhaka is shaping its external relations," Imran Ahmed told Nikkei Asia.
He said, "Bangladesh appears to be trying to increase the number of partners available to it. In this sense, 'Bangladesh First' is taking the form of a more diverse foreign policy. Closer ties with Mecca Agreement countries may allow Dhaka to expand its options without choosing a camp, but formally joining the agreement would be one thing. This would be like moving from liberal partnerships to a formal security arrangement.
Many experts believe that if Bangladesh joins the maize agreement, India will definitely be worried.
Former Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, while talking to News 18 on August 21 last month, had said, "On paper, the Mecca Agreement can present a definite picture of multilateral cooperation between Muslim-majority countries. But if we look at the ground reality, what real and concrete benefits will Bangladesh get from this?
Momen had said, “Strong, stable and cooperative relations with India matter.” Any step that disturbs this balance or embroils us with foreign military groups is not in line with the core national interests of Bangladesh. Bangladesh has historically benefited from a policy of 'friendship to all, enmity to none'. Moving towards military alliances or defense agreements that could affect regional stability could be counterproductive.
Sheshadri Chari, editor of the English magazine Organizer, considered the mouthpiece of the RSS, had written last month on Tariq Rehman not attending the BRICS summit, "Any practical leader would have taken advantage of this opportunity and tried his best to strengthen bilateral relations with India in the interest of his country."
''It is unfortunate that the Prime Minister of Bangladesh is hesitant in responding positively to India's invitation to visit New Delhi. Probably his advisors are preventing him from doing so, whose domestic and foreign policies are based on creating an anti-India narrative.
