Bangladesh Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman in New Delhi today. What's on the agenda?

Bangladesh's foreign minister, Khalilur Rahman, is arriving in India today, 7 April, for a three-day official visit. Rahman will meet National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar during the visit.

Rahman meets Doval on the first day of his maiden visit on Tuesday. Later, he will meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday. Rahman may also meet Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri.

This is the first high-level political outreach to Delhi by the new government in Dhaka, led by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, in February.

Khalilur Rahman is visiting India at a time when both sides are rebuilding ties after the strains witnessed under the caretaker administration led by Nobel laureate Mohammed Yunus. Rahman was the NSA in the interim government led by Yunus.

In New Delhi, he will meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.

The visit will focus on Bangladesh’s worsening energy scenario amid the ongoing war in West Asia and the resultant crisis in the global energy market.

On 10 March, India supplied a consignment of high-speed diesel to Bangladesh amid reports of an urgent requirement for diesel and other petroleum products.

Rahman will be accompanied by Humayun Kabir, the prime minister’s adviser for foreign affairs, according to the Bangladeshi daily Prothom Alo. This will be the first visit by a Bangladeshi foreign minister to India since 2024.

The renewal of the three-decade-old treaty for the sharing of Ganga waters, signed in December 1996, has been in focus in recent weeks. Rahman was the National Security Adviser of the interim government led by Yunus. He visited India in November 2025 and met NSA Ajit Doval in New Delhi.

In January 2025, lynching and public burning of a 25-year-old Hindu man, Dipu Chandra Das, in Bangladesh, sparked protests in India in New Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad and other cities, calling for the protection of minorities and strong diplomatic action.

But of late, the two neighbours had been exchanging comments in keeping with the spirit of mutual understanding. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first global leaders to congratulate Tarique Rahman after BNP's victory. Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla attended the swearing-in on 17 February.

On 25 March, marking the anniversary of the infamous Operation Searchlight of 1971 by the Pakistan military that left millions of citizens of Bangladesh dead, Bangladesh PM Tarique Rahman had paid tribute to the victims of the Pakistani military’s atrocities.

Following his remarks, the Ministry of External Affairs(MEA) on 27 March 2026 said that Operation Searchlight and the resultant violence in its aftermath in 1971, led to the “murder of millions of innocent Bangladeshi people and mass sexual crimes against women”.

On Monday, High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh, Pranay Verma, paid a courtesy call on Bangladesh's Prime Minister, Tarique Rahman. He held discussions on the ties between New Delhi and Dhaka, focusing on people-centric cooperation across multiple domains aligned with the national development priorities of both countries.

On 3 April, Bangladesh High Commissioner to India, Riaz Hamidullah, held talks on defence collaboration with the Chief of Army Staff, General Upendra Dwivedi.

Hamidullah and General Dwivedi deliberated on enhancing bilateral defence cooperation, including joint training initiatives.

Last month, the Director General of Forces Intelligence, Major General Kaiser Chowdhury, visited India and met with his counterpart, Lieutenant General RS Raman, as well as Parag Jain, chief of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), and NSA Ajit Doval.

(With agency inputs)