Pakistan Foreign Minister to visit Bangladesh this month

Dhaka: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar will undertake a two-day visit to Bangladesh starting August 23, the local media reported on Monday. This would mark the first bilateral visit by a Pakistani foreign minister in a long time amid growing closeness between Dhaka and Islamabad since the exit of the Awami League government led by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, last year.

Citing diplomatic sources, Bangladesh’s leading Bengali daily Prothom Alo reported that during his visit Dar will hold discussions with the Foreign Affairs Advisor Towhid Hossain and also call on Muhammad Yunus, the Chief Advisor to the interim government in the country. The report indicated that Dar will engage with Bangladeshi political leaders during his visit to Dhaka.

“The agenda has not been decided yet. Hopefully, it will be finalised in early August,” Prothom Alo quoted Hossain as saying in response to a question on the priorities of the upcoming Dhaka-Islamabad foreign ministerial meeting.

In April, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch visited Dhaka for the Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) which were held after a gap of 15 years.

During Baloch’s visit, Bangladesh had raised the issue of financial claim to the tune of USD 4.32 billion from Pakistan as a fair share from the assets of undivided Pakistan before 1971 besides also seeking a formal apology for the genocide committed by the Pakistani armed forces during the Liberation War.

Dar was scheduled to be in Dhaka immediately after Baloch’s trip but had to cancel the visit following the Pakistan-sponsored heinous April 22 Pahalgam terror attack which witnessed the massacre of 26 innocent tourists in Jammu and Kashmir.

Relations between Dhaka and Islamabad remained strained during the 15-year rule of the former Awami League government due to issues such as the war crimes trials in Bangladesh and broader regional politics. Key issues in Bangladesh-Pakistan relations have always included Pakistan’s role in the 1971 genocide during the Liberation War, the return of stranded assets, and compensation.

However, things have changed drastically since the formation of the interim government led by Yunus in August 2024.

Last year, Yunus met Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, where both leaders agreed to strengthen bilateral ties.

In January, four high-ranking officials of Pakistan’s notorious Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), including the Director General of Analysis Major General Shahid Amin Afsar, visited Dhaka, marking a significant shift in Bangladesh-Pakistan relations.

A Bangladeshi military delegation led by Lt. Gen. SM Kamrul Hasan, the Principal Staff Officer of the Armed Forces Division, also visited Rawalpindi — the nerve centre of Pakistan’s military establishment — from January 13 to 18. The delegation met the chiefs of the Pakistani army, navy, and air force, highlighting a deepening military dialogue.

The two nations historically estranged since the brutal 1971 Liberation War — wherein Pakistani forces massacred millions of people and reportedly raped hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi women — are now demonstrating signs of rapprochement.

IANS