India wants positive ties with Bangladesh as consular dialogue slips and Hasina row looms

The consular dialogue is the one that was due. Dhaka proposed it, at the level of directors-general of the two foreign ministries, and it would be the first since Hasina's government fell in 2024. The agenda was expected to cover border management, visa procedures and the repatriation of detained citizens. Hasina's extradition was expected to come up as well, since it falls under consular services. The last round was held in New Delhi on 29 May 2024, about two months before her rule ended, and the dialogue, set up in 2017, had been held four times, all during the Awami League's years in office.

A Bangladeshi diplomatic source said the next round is unlikely this year even if Dhaka proposes a new date. On Hasina herself, Dhaka has ruled out issuing a new passport. On 9 November a London-based law firm wrote to the Bangladesh High Commission on her behalf asking for a fresh passport, and the government of Bangladesh has said it will not issue new travel documents to her. Foreign Minister Humaiun Kobir has said that Bangladesh will pursue her return through a prisoner-exchange arrangement, which he said would be handled carefully and under proper surveillance. The government is led by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which took office in February 2026.

The state of the relationship

The relationship has been through a hard period since the uprising of August 2024. India sharply cut visas for Bangladeshis after it, and the restrictions have since eased: India resumed tourist visas for Bangladeshis in June 2026 after a long suspension, and Bangladesh resumed visas for Indian citizens across categories after the change of government in February. The Joint Working Group on Trade met in October 2026, the first such meeting in three years, and talks have covered reopening border markets, making land ports fully operational and easing restrictions on the movement of goods.

India's High Commissioner in Dhaka, Dinesh Trivedi, has met the new prime minister, and the two governments have shown interest in resetting ties. The two issues that cut across everything are Hasina's presence in India, where she has lived since 2024, and Dhaka's request for her return to face trial. The Indian side has not commented publicly on the extradition request in the briefing, and no treaty process has been announced.

What to watch

The first thing to watch is whether the dialogue gets a date. The ministry's wording leaves it open, and the Bangladeshi source's view that it may not happen this year points to a longer wait. The second is whether the passport request or the prisoner-exchange idea produces any formal step, such as a note between the two foreign ministries. The third is trade and visas, where practical steps have continued even without a political breakthrough. A statement from either foreign ministry after the next meeting of any of the mechanisms is the most reliable sign of movement, and the ministries' own websites carry them.

Bangladesh is a neighbour with which India shares a long land border, and the two countries trade heavily by land and by water. Border management, the movement of people with visas, water-sharing on the rivers that run between them and the supply of power and goods are everyday matters for communities on both sides, which is why the ministries use structured mechanisms for them. Delay in a political dialogue does not by itself stop those lower-level exchanges, and the trade working group's meeting in October was an example of a technical channel that has restarted.

The ministry's choice of words is also worth reading. A relationship described as positive, constructive and forward-looking signals a wish to keep the temperature low, and the mention of existing mechanisms signals that India does not intend to open a new channel for the extradition question. Whether Dhaka reads it that way is not clear from the accounts available.