Bangladesh-India ties should not be 'regime-specific', Foreign Affairs Adviser Touhid tells The Hindu

Bangladesh-India relations should not be "regime-specific", Bangladesh Foreign Affairs Adviser Touhid Hossain said in an interview with The Hindu today (17 February).

"Whichever government, whichever party, is in power in our two capitals that should not affect our relations, because relations are based on mutual interests and mutual respect. And I believe that both our sides realise what is in their interest, and we can have very good relations with India," he told The Hindu.

After holding talks with India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on the sidelines of the 8th Indian Ocean Conference in Oman, Touhid also said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus may finally meet on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC Summit in April.

In the interview, Touhid spoke about a number of challenging issues straining bilateral ties between the two neighbouring countries, including attacks on minorities, Sheikh Hasina's statements from India, border killings and the mistreatment of fishermen, as well as the issues over the Adani power project.

Asked about his meeting with Jaishankar yesterday, Touhid said, "Relationships were very tense [when the interim government took over]. It started very tense, as I see it, because India had gotten used to a pattern of relations for more than 15 years, and suddenly there was a very quick break."

Touhid said compared to six months ago, the two countries can now interact with each other much better.

"Maybe adjusting to the new realities took some time, so there was a lot of adverse attention on ties, and uneasiness was definitely there. But I think six months on, that should actually be over, and we need an environment where we can do business with each other."

Trump-Modi meet

Asked whether Touhid inquired Jaishankar about the concerns India raised about the situation in Bangladesh during Modi's meeting with US President Trump in Washington, Touhid said, "Not really. I didn't ask because it is India's affair [what it discusses with another country]."

"I don't think there should be much concern. Our bilateral relations should be normalised, which is already happening in some areas. For example, in trade. Trade had a short period of a hiccup, but it has picked up again. So these are indications that the two countries, at least in the private sector, people want to interact with each other, and that manifests that we have interests. Both countries have interests in each other and we need to take care of that."

Minority issues

Asked whether the interim government has been able to control violence against minorities, particularly the Hindu community in Bangladesh, Touhid said Hindu or any other minority communities that live in Bangladesh are exactly equal citizens with the Muslim or the majority community and it is the Bangladesh government's job to protect them, like protecting any other citizen of the country.

"Unfortunately, just after 5th of August [in 2024, when Sheikh Hasina resigned], there has been a really, almost unexplainable frenzy in the Indian media about this issue, mostly based on falsehood. I would invite you to go through the findings of the UN, which has been published two days ago, and says that [the interim government was not involved in the violence]."

The foreign adviser also said, "I do not think it is proper for the Indian authorities to speak on this issue. This is an absolutely internal issue, and the Bangladesh government is taking adequate action. We must remember that we have at least four members in the Council of Advisers who are human rights workers, who have been working on these issues for many, many years. They have themselves taken up minority rights issues."

Hasina's extradition

Touhid was asked what exactly the interim government is hoping India will do on the subject of former PM Sheikh Hasina.

In response, he said, "There are cases against [Hasina], and we have asked for India to send her back to us to face trial. As long as the Indian government doesn't do that, we would expect they can at least put some restrictions on her so that she does not make incendiary and false statements which instigate reactions among the people, because the issues are still very, very raw.

"For 15 years, she was in power, and people feel very, very strongly angry about her actions, so they would like to see that she doesn't try to destabilise the situation inside Bangladesh."

Asked whether there will be a formal extradition request, he said, "We have an extradition treaty, and we have given back many of the accused to India to face trial, and I think India can give her back to face trial in Bangladesh."

Mentioning that Bangladesh would have to go through the trial process for extradition and have sufficient warrants for the MLAT (mutual legal assistance), The Hindu asked when Bangladesh hopes to begin that process.

In response, Touhid said, "The process is already on, because the cases are now in court. We cannot compel them to do it [in a hurry]. And we are also aware that she might also have recourse to the Indian judicial system. It might take time, but what we want is that she does not make incendiary statements while she's in India."

Border security

On the issue of security along the Bangladesh-India border, Touhid mentioned that 24 people had been shot at the border in 2024.

"This is not done anywhere in the world. I think you would agree with me on this because from the Indian side, it's often said that since there is crime, so this is happening. There is crime in every border in the world. Nowhere are people shot dead like this.

"If crime has been committed, you arrest him or her and take them to court, jail or anything the court decides, but you can't just execute them. But that's what has been happening in the border for years, through different types of governments. This is not done. This is one thing which I think India, if you wish, it can stop, and it should stop," he said.

Asked about the alleged mistreatment of arrested Indian fishermen in Bangladesh, Touhid said, "We have already asked for an inquiry, and if we find that there was actually some of our security people involved, or if they have broken the law, of course we'll take it into consideration. But this is not normally done. I was a diplomat in Kolkata for more than four years… and have conducted these exchanges, and they are not mistreated. If there has been an exception, we will of course look into this."

Adani power agreement

Recent media reports suggest that the Bangladesh government is negotiating for a restoration of power supply from the Adani Group.

Asked whether the Bangladesh government intends to continue with the agreement with the Adani Group for power supply, Touhid said, "We have to go by the agreement, but if we feel that it has not been done properly, we can always mutually agree to look at it again. And in my opinion, we will look at it with the Adani Group and try to make it more rational."

"There has been a comparative comparison with other deals, and it was seen that the agreed power tariff has been unusually high. So we believe that should be renegotiated again, particularly on the question of purchase of coal," he added.

"For the moment, we have asked for the power to be restored because we need power, and our planning has been done on the basis of them supplying that power. So we want them to supply this power, and then we are going to pay for that."

Possible Yunus-Modi meeting

The foreign adviser said Yunus and Modi have not been at any venue on the same day, so there was no opportunity for them to meet.

"I personally believe that there is willingness from both sides to meet and discuss things freely and frankly. That helps. In our culture in the region, when the 'top bosses' sit together, they can resolve an issue just in one word, rather than leaving it to people like us to negotiate for years. I think a meeting between the two would be a good thing to happen in that sense."

The two leaders will be in the same venue for the BIMSTEC summit in April, he said.

"As I understand that all the heads of government will be there. If they are there, the normal, natural thing would be that they talk to each other, because it's a small group. At SAARC [South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation] summits for example, every Head of state or government used to speak with the other seven counterparts. So I think something like that is likely to happen."

There's yet to be agreement on a meeting, he said. "It's too early. We fix these things only a few days earlier, once the programme is finalised and complete. Let's see what happens."