India-Bangladesh ties must serve mutual interest: Jaishankar

India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said bilateral relations with neighbouring countries, including Bangladesh, can work only when they serve the mutual interests of both sides.

He made the remarks yesterday (22 August) against the backdrop of Dhaka linking Prime Minister Tarique Rahman's possible visit to New Delhi to the extradition of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

Speaking during a question-and-answer session at the Economic Times World Leaders Forum in New Delhi, Jaishankar said India did not expect its neighbours to act solely in New Delhi's interests.

"I am also realistic, I'm not expecting neighbours to do only what is in my interest. There has to be a fair degree, a reasonable degree of my recognising and respecting what is their interest, just as I expect them also to do so," he said.

He said a bilateral relationship could work only if it passed the "test of mutual interest".

"What I can tell you is for any relationship to work, it has to meet the test of mutual interest. It has to work for them, it has to work for us," he said.

Jaishankar said relations worked smoothly when the two sides found a "landing point" or "common ground".

"I would say this in respect of all neighbours, that [in] relationships, at the end of the day, there's a mutuality which underpins that exercise," he said.

India has invited Tarique Rahman for a bilateral visit as well as to attend the outreach session of the upcoming BRICS summit in his capacity as chair of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec).