'Has There Been an Invite?': Bangladesh Foreign Minister on Tarique Rahman's BRICS Absence
New Delhi: No representative from Bangladesh will attend the BRICS summit, Bangladesh state minister for foreign affairs, Humaiun Kobir said a day ago, repeating the country's stance.
The BRICS summit is to take place in New Delhi this September 12 and 13.
Kobir, reported Bangladesh news outlets, said this to journalists on the sidelines of a Dhaka seminar on the Rohingya issue on September 10.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party also posted a video of Kobir's comments on their verified Facebook page.
"How will we go? Has anyone from the Bangladesh government been invited? Has there been an invite? So if there was no invite, why are you asking me this question? Who told you that our Prime Minister was invited? The BIMSTEC Chair was invited. Bangladesh's prime minister was not invited."
India has invited members and official partners of BRICS, along with heads of multilateral organisations and regional groups, not individual countries.
When a reporter asked him if a representative would go against the invite to the BIMSTEC chair, Kobir said there was no "scope" to send a representative to BRICS. Kobir said, "When the environment is conducive, we will go on a bilateral visit."
He then said the phrase "mutual respect" and continued in Bengali to say that talks were on.
While deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's virtual press conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club in New Delhi, in which she criticised the BNP government in Dhaka has been a thorn in ties, but The Wire had reported in mid-August itself that Rahman's visit was being planned as a bilateral engagement rather than around the BRICS summit in New Delhi, which Rahman was not expected to attend.
A diplomatic source had told The Wire that the BRICS summit had never been under serious consideration as the occasion for his first visit, as a substantive bilateral engagement would be needed to address issues such as the Ganga treaty.
The Wire has also reported how in late August, a Rashtrapati Bhavan press release which briefly indicated that preparations were underway for the ceremonial welcome of PM Rahman was withdrawn.
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