Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman is unlikely to attend the upcoming BRICS summit in Delhi as he was not invited in his capacity as PM, according to Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir.
Kobir said the invitation was sent to Rahman in his capacity as the current chair of the BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation). India, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand are the other members of BIMSTEC.
"How shall we go? Has anyone from the Bangladesh government been invited? Our prime minister was not invited. Who told you that our Prime Minister was invited?" Kobir told The Daily Star.
He said Bangladesh will also not send any representative for the summit.
The minister also revealed that Dhaka is working on Rahman's bilateral visit to India when the conditions were favourable.
On Tuesday, responding to a question on whether the PM would attend the summit, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman said. "I'm not here (in a) national capacity, so please forgive me... I will really ask all of you to ask me questions or approach me in my capacity as the President of the General Assembly. If there are bilateral issues, I'm still the Foreign Minister; I'll speak to you separately."
New Delhi's ties with Bangladesh has been strained ever since India provided political asylum to ousted PM Sheikh Hasina.
On Tuesday, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in New Delhi that there was no update to share on any confirmation from Dhaka on the Bangladeshi PM's participation in the BRICS summit.
The 18th BRICS Leaders' Summit will be held on September 12 and 13. Chinese President Xi Jinping has confirmed his participation in the meeting. Other notable leaders include Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iran's Masoud Pezeshikian, South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa, Egypt's Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.
