Tarique Rahman Shapes Bangladesh Foreign Policy
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- Tarique Rahman was sworn in as Bangladesh's prime minister on February 17, 2026, at the National Parliament Complex in Dhaka
- Rahman leads the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which was founded by his father Ziaur Rahman
- Ziaur Rahman in the late 1970s envisioned a South Asia united through cooperation and played a key role in proposing regional collaboration
- That proposal led to the formal establishment of SAARC on December 8, 1985, in Dhaka
- SAARC's founding charter was signed by leaders from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives
Why it matters: BNP's return to power under Tarique Rahman — whose father Ziaur Rahman proposed the regional cooperation that birthed SAARC — puts a party with deep roots in South Asian regionalism back at the helm of Bangladeshi diplomacy.
