Dhaka wants a bilateral reset and an end to what it calls India fascination

Bangladesh's state minister for foreign affairs, Humaiun Kobir, said on Sunday that Dhaka wants to reset its relationship with India through direct bilateral talks, not through sideline meetings at multilateral events. He described the past 15 years, covering Sheikh Hasina's time in office, as uncomfortable.

"We have to get out of the India fascination. India is just another country, and Bangladesh wants good bilateral relations with it," he told reporters at the foreign ministry. In another line that circulated quickly in Indian papers, he asked when Bangladesh would eat its own food if breakfast, lunch and dinner were all in India.

Kobir said the new relationship should be built on mutual interests and that Prime Minister Tarique Rahman's first engagement with New Delhi should be a bilateral visit rather than a pull-aside at a summit. The remarks came two days after Dhaka confirmed Rahman would not attend the 18th BRICS summit hosted by India. Bangladesh said the invitation was extended to the BIMSTEC chair, not to Rahman as prime minister, even though a separate bilateral invitation had gone out in February.

Rahman was appointed prime minister in February 2026 after Muhammad Yunus headed the interim government that followed Hasina's removal in August 2024. Hasina remains in India. That refuge is the single sharpest bilateral grievance on the Bangladeshi side. Kobir did not announce a demand for extradition in Sunday's briefing. He also did not list a date for a bilateral visit.

The language is a change in register more than a change in file. Water sharing on the Teesta, border killings, trade imbalance and the treatment of minorities in both countries have sat on the same desk for years. What is new is a government in Dhaka that defines the Hasina years as authoritarian and says the closeness of that period was a problem, not an asset. India had treated Hasina as the reliable partner on security and connectivity. The new cabinet is telling New Delhi that the old channel is closed.

Skipping BRICS in New Delhi is the first public cost. BIMSTEC chairmanship gave Rahman a formal reason to be in the room. Dhaka chose not to use it. Kobir's insistence on a bilateral first meeting is a sequencing demand: talk as two capitals, then appear together at a forum. New Delhi has not issued a detailed reply to the Sunday briefing. The invitation record, as described by Kobir, is that India did send a bilateral note in February and a BIMSTEC-chair note for the summit.

Rahman is due to address the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York. Officials in Dhaka have left open the possibility of sideline contact with United States officials there. No equivalent opening with the Indian delegation has been announced.

A reset that is only a speech will not move trucks at Benapole or change the Teesta file. A reset that includes a prime ministerial visit, a work plan on water and a decision on Hasina's status would. Kobir put the first of those on the table and left the other two unspoken. That is the state of the relationship on Monday: a public request for distance, a missed summit, and no date for the meeting Dhaka says it wants.