Bangladesh PM Skips India for Malaysia, China Trip
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- Tarique Rahman will visit Malaysia on June 21 and China on June 22, his first foreign trip since assuming office, with the Foreign Ministry announcing on June 20 that he is bypassing India as his inaugural destination.
- In Beijing, Rahman is expected to discuss trade and infrastructure, with Chinese support for the long-delayed Teesta river project — dredging, embankment construction and irrigation — potentially on the agenda.
- Malaysia hosts an estimated 800,000 Bangladeshi workers, more than a third of its foreign workforce, making labor migration a central plank of the stop in Kuala Lumpur.
- Bangladesh-India relations have been strained since the 2024 uprising toppled PM Sheikh Hasina, an ally of New Delhi, though ties improved after Rahman took over from the interim administration in February following February elections.
- Sheikh Hasina has been in hiding in India since fleeing the revolution, and Bangladesh has repeatedly sought her extradition — a live point of friction between Dhaka and New Delhi.
- India has been pushing people it deems illegal migrants across the frontier into Bangladesh, further deteriorating border relations, according to the report.
Why it matters: By skipping New Delhi on his maiden voyage, Rahman signals Bangladesh's post-Hasina diplomatic pivot toward Beijing and Kuala Lumpur — directly challenging India's traditional sphere of influence in South Asia. Concretely, Chinese backing for the long-stalled Teesta river project would give Beijing an infrastructure foothold in a water resource India has long treated as its own backyard, while the extradition of Hasina and cross-border migration continue to block a reset.
