Islamabad, Pakistan – When the international minister, Ishaq Dar, landed at Dhaka airport on a windswept, overcast morning on August 23, it was the primary time in 13 years that such a senior Pakistani official had visited Bangladesh, which had damaged from Pakistan 54 years in the past.
Dar, who additionally serves as Pakistan’s deputy prime minister, struck an optimistic tone, calling the “historic” tour the beginning of “a brand new section of our reinvigorated partnership”.
Acknowledging a thaw in bilateral relations, he pointed to the “important progress” remodeled the previous yr.
“We should work collectively to create an atmosphere the place youth from Karachi to Chittagong, Quetta to Rajshahi, Peshawar to Sylhet and Lahore to Dhaka be a part of arms to face challenges and realise their shared goals,” Dar stated, naming cities throughout each nations.
His go to symbolised a breakthrough after months of diplomatic and navy engagements between Pakistan and Bangladesh. Relations have warmed quickly for the reason that August 2024 ouster of former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was extensively perceived as being near India, and who was pressured out by huge student-led protests.
However Masood Khalid, Pakistan’s former ambassador to China, cautioned that the previous continues to complicate trust-building between the 2 nations.
“The brand new authorities of Bangladesh has responded positively to Pakistan’s gestures. Clearly, there have been synthetic limitations to shut relations which have now been eliminated,” he informed Al Jazeera.
What was now wanted, he stated, was a “framework for deeper engagement, the place constructive dialogue can dispel misunderstandings”.
Navy and diplomatic engagements intensify
Whereas Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, chief of Bangladesh’s interim authorities, twice final yr, few analysts anticipated such a swift enchancment in ties, or the common, high-level exchanges that adopted.
In January, Lieutenant Normal S M Kamr-ul-Hassan of the Bangladesh Military visited Islamabad to satisfy Pakistan’s military chief, Normal Asim Munir. In February, Bangladesh’s naval chief, Admiral Mohammad Nazmul Hassan, adopted, and two months later, Pakistani International Secretary Amna Baloch travelled to Dhaka.
Dar’s journey had been delayed by Pakistan’s four-day conflict with India in Might, however July noticed Minister of Inside Mohsin Naqvi visiting Dhaka.
Dar’s eventual arrival in Dhaka in August coincided with that of Lieutenant Normal Muhammad Faizur Rahman, the quartermaster basic of the Bangladesh Military in Pakistan, the place he held talks with the chairman of the Pakistani Joint Chiefs of Employees Committee, Normal Sahir Shamshad Mirza.
Delwar Hossain, a world relations professor on the College of Dhaka, stated that Pakistan’s “hasty efforts” to strengthen ties are strategic.
“Pakistan was attempting to normalise relations even beneath the Hasina authorities. Now they see a possibility to revive the bond they loved within the post-1975 period,” he informed Al Jazeera, referencing the interval after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s founder and Hasina’s father.
Relations between Islamabad and Dhaka normalised beneath Ziaur Rahman, Bangladesh’s navy chief-turned-president, who led the nation from late 1975 till he, too, was assassinated in 1981.
“Regime change has traditionally created a binary of friendship and antagonism in Bangladesh’s ties with India and Pakistan. Pakistan may additionally need to exploit the present tensions in Bangladesh-India relations. It is a widespread diplomatic follow,” Hossain added.
Bangladesh’s struggle of independence legacy
For many years, Islamabad and New Delhi have considered ties with Dhaka by way of the prism of their rivalry, a dynamic rooted in Bangladesh’s 1971 struggle of independence.
When Pakistan and India gained independence from Britain in 1947, Pakistan was created as a Muslim-majority state with two geographically separated wings.
The western wing, dwelling to about 34 million folks of various ethnicities, was seen as dominant. The jap wing, East Pakistan — which might develop into Bangladesh — was extra populous, with greater than 42 million Bengali audio system. India stood between the 2 components of Pakistan.
As grievances grew within the east, India supported the Bengali liberation battle. Pakistan’s navy and allied militias carried out atrocities, killing a whole lot of 1000’s of individuals and allegedly raping an estimated 200,000 ladies.
With India’s navy backing, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his Awami League social gathering led Bangladesh to independence. He turned the nation’s founding president.
Hasina, who led Bangladesh for 16 years earlier than her elimination final yr, is extensively seen as near India, the place she has been dwelling since final yr.
Aizaz Chaudhry, Pakistan’s former international secretary, stated that the shared grievances over India’s “regional hegemony” have spurred Islamabad and Dhaka to restore ties.
“Bangladeshis have skilled Indian hegemony, and we, in Pakistan, noticed it within the Might battle. Each nations now perceive the necessity for stability of energy in South Asia,” he informed Al Jazeera.
In Might, India and Pakistan fought a short however intense four-day aerial struggle after gunmen killed 26 folks, largely vacationers, in an assault in Pahalgam, in Indian-administered Kashmir. India has blamed Pakistan for the assault, allegations that Islamabad rejects.
Shahab Enam Khan, the manager director of the Bangladesh Middle for Indo-Pacific Affairs, described Dhaka’s relationship with New Delhi as “lukewarm”, regardless of India being a big neighbour, however added that international coverage is pushed by financial imperatives.
“Anti-India sentiment is usually exaggerated,” he stated. “Bangladesh traditionally avoids viewing relations, particularly with Pakistan, by way of a purely safety or navy lens, preferring financial and regional cooperation.”
China’s rising function
Regional dynamics are additional sophisticated by China’s rising affect in South Asia. Beijing, an in depth ally of Islamabad, had sturdy relations with Hasina, who efficiently juggled her friendship with India and China – although the 2 Asian giants are in any other case rivals.
Dhaka College’s Hossain stated that China had managed to retain a big presence in Bangladesh even after Hasina’s ouster. In March, Yunus visited Beijing, adopted by Bangladesh Military chief Normal Waker-Uz-Zaman’s weeklong China journey in August.
“Bangladesh is contemplating shopping for 12 J-10C fighter jets to spice up its air energy,” he added, referring to Chinese language-made planes that Pakistan additionally has, and that Islamabad used within the Might battle. China can also be Pakistan’s closest strategic companion, and the supply of each financial loans and investments in addition to navy gear.
“These developments are bringing Dhaka and Islamabad nearer, reworking ties into a powerful partnership,” Hossain stated.
Commerce, politics as nations search partnership
Dar’s two-day go to to Bangladesh was filled with conferences, together with talks with Yunus and Adviser for International Affairs Touhid Hossain.
He additionally met leaders from a spread of political events, together with the Bangladesh Nationalist Celebration (BNP), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), and the student-led Nationwide Citizen Celebration (NCP), which spearheaded the protests that toppled Hasina.
These conferences have been notably important as Bangladesh is getting ready for elections in early 2026, stated Abdul Basit, a former Pakistani excessive commissioner to India. “It doesn’t matter what occurs between India and Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bangladesh will forge forward,” he informed Al Jazeera. “Now we have points from the previous, however they are often dealt with skilfully and shouldn’t develop into limitations.”
Each may gain advantage from nearer financial relations, too, urged Pakistan’s former China ambassador Khalid and Dhaka College’s Hossain.
Bangladesh, with a development fee of 6 p.c since 2021, is amongst South Asia’s fastest-growing economies. Pakistan lags behind, recording 2.5 p.c development final yr. In the meanwhile, bilateral commerce is modest, tilted in the direction of Pakistan, whose exports to Bangladesh totalled $661m in 2024, in contrast with $57m in imports.
But when each nations try to revitalise commerce relations, Hossain stated they might every profit from the opposite – each as a supply of uncooked supplies and as a possible market.
The tutorial stated Bangladesh could profit from importing cotton and textile merchandise, rice, cement, fruits and processed meals from Pakistan. However, Pakistan can import jute and jute merchandise, hydrogen peroxide, chemical compounds and tobacco merchandise from Bangladesh.
“Bangladesh and Pakistan have a mixed inhabitants of 430 million”, he identified, “which is greater than twice the scale of West Europe”.
Historic grievances stay
The deepest fault line in Pakistan-Bangladesh relations is the legacy of the 1971 struggle.
Dhaka continues to demand a proper apology for the atrocities.
Then there may be the dispute over the standing of greater than 200,000 Urdu-speaking Muslims in Bangladesh. After the partition in 1947, the neighborhood had largely moved to East Pakistan from Bihar in present-day India. East Pakistan — at present Bangladesh — was nearer to Bihar geographically than West Pakistan. However Bangladesh, whose formation in 1971 was constructed on Bengali nationalism, has solely given Urdu-speaking Muslims restricted rights, and desires Pakistan to take them, one thing Islamabad is reluctant to do.
Bangladesh additionally seeks a division of the pre-1971 property of the state of Pakistan, and the switch of help that was promised by West Pakistan to East Pakistan in 1970 after a devastating cyclone, wherein an estimated 300,000 folks died. The gradual and largely insufficient response of the West Pakistan-based authorities is cited by many historians as a significant catalyst for the liberation struggle that led to the formation of Bangladesh.
Nonetheless, Chaudhry, the previous Pakistani international secretary, argued that public sentiment in each nations helps reconciliation.
“Individuals of Pakistan are additionally as unhappy concerning the occasions of 1971 because the folks of Bangladesh. I believe this ache is widespread, and folks in each nations now need to transfer on,” Chaudhry stated.
Nonetheless, Dhaka College’s Hossain stated that, regardless of sturdy assist from the present political forces for strengthening Bangladesh-Pakistan relations, points associated to the 1971 struggle proceed to stay a barrier for improved ties.
“You will need to do not forget that the ouster of Hasina from energy has not essentially modified the mindsets of the folks of Bangladesh concerning the liberation struggle and an expectation from Pakistan for therapeutic the previous,” Hossain stated.
Nonetheless, he added, Dhaka didn’t need to keep caught up to now both.
“Diplomacy is a dynamic course of. Each the nations can transfer ahead for cooperation in financial, diplomatic and cultural sectors, whereas they may proceed to keep up the therapeutic course of,” he stated.
