The incumbent Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Tarique Rahman assumed office on February 17, 2026, after an election that served as a democratic reset for a country ruled by an interim government since the previous conventionally elected Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina was toppled by a series of violent protests led by students and discontents of society.

Hasina who heads the now outlawed Bangladesh Awami League party, was a traditional adversary of Rahman’s party the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) when it was headed by his late mother Khaleda Zia. While his mother Zia was incarcerated in Bangladesh on corruption charges, Rahman was in London and not directly able to affect political movements or outcomes.

However, after the demise of Zia shortly after release from prison under the interim government, Rahman who had since returned to his native Bangladesh took up the mantel of BNP’s leader and led the party to a landslide victory where they won 212 of the 350 seats in parliament, defeating Islamist elements such as the Jamaat-e-Islami, and the student protest movement National Citizens Party (NCP), who now serve as an opposition party.

The majority in parliament not only gave the newly elected government a relatively free hand but also a mandate to reign-in what can only be described as the anarchy and sporadic violence of communal, religious and political shades, with Bangladesh’s religious and ethnic minorities bearing the harshest consequences till the BNP’s arrival stabilised things. However, while the incidents of violence against minorities stopped, the BNP maintained largely the same foreign policy approach as the interim government when it came to India.

Prior to Rahman's rise to power, the interim government’s leader, Nobel Laureate Mohammed Yunus, who was not himself elected but took power on a dubious basis, styled himself as the Chief Advisor. At the time, the Bangladesh constitution didn’t have any provisions for an interim government, and before her departure in August 2024 to safe haven in India, Sheikh Hasina had not officially resigned.

Six months after Rahman and BNP took power, perhaps the most obvious structural reason for the continuity in taking a less than warm approach towards India, is to have better bargaining chips at the negotiating table. India and Bangladesh have several ongoing disputes and shared issues such as alleged illegal immigration by Bangladeshi nationals into the Eastern parts of India, the extradition of Hasina who was tried in absentia and sentenced to death by the so-called International War Crimes Tribunal court of Bangladesh in November 2025, and water sharing agreements for rivers that flow through both countries.

Furthermore, under Hasina’s leadership the Awami League rule of Bangladesh was seen as closely aligned to New Delhi, which gave it limited avenues for engagement with other regional powers which are adversarial to India, such as China and Pakistan.

The BNP and Rahman are now able to engage with these powers, seeking both better opportunities and to use the very prospect of this cooperation as a chip to draw better concessions out of New Delhi.

Fast-forward to the present and in August 2026, the latest point of friction has been New Delhi’s expectation that Rahman visits soon, while Rahman’s administration says that the Bangladeshi Prime Minister’s visit will only take place on the condition that Hasina is returned to Bangladesh to face legal action.

To this end, according to official briefings and answers to reporters’s questions, India’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has only indicated that the consultations on the matter are ongoing between New Delhi and Dhaka, and that there will be future updates on the matter. However, Rahman himself has been very careful in his statements, while at the same time not openly antagonising India. 

Judging by Rahman's own claim that his foreign policy will not be based on dealing with any one country, but rather carried out in the best interests of Dhaka, he may be suggesting that the price to be paid by New Delhi for alignment on any given topic, may be viewed on a case by case basis.