Islamabad, Pakistan – When the overseas 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 “vital 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 palms to face challenges and realise their shared goals,” Dar mentioned, naming cities throughout each international locations.
His go to symbolised a breakthrough after months of diplomatic and navy engagements between Pakistan and Bangladesh. Relations have warmed quickly because the August 2024 ouster of former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was broadly perceived as being near India, and who was compelled out by large 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 boundaries to shut relations which have now been eliminated,” he informed Al Jazeera.
What was now wanted, he mentioned, was a “framework for deeper engagement, the place constructive dialogue can dispel misunderstandings”.
Army 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 fulfill 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 Could, 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 normal of the Bangladesh Military in Pakistan, the place he held talks with the chairman of the Pakistani Joint Chiefs of Workers Committee, Normal Sahir Shamshad Mirza.
Delwar Hossain, a world relations professor on the College of Dhaka, mentioned that Pakistan’s “hasty efforts” to strengthen ties are strategic.
“Pakistan was attempting to normalise relations even underneath 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 underneath 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 might also wish to exploit the present tensions in Bangladesh-India relations. This can be a frequent diplomatic observe,” Hossain added.
Bangladesh’s conflict of independence legacy
For many years, Islamabad and New Delhi have considered ties with Dhaka via the prism of their rivalry, a dynamic rooted in Bangladesh’s 1971 conflict 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, residence to about 34 million individuals of numerous ethnicities, was seen as dominant. The japanese wing, East Pakistan — which might turn 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 wrestle. Pakistan’s navy and allied militias carried out atrocities, killing lots of 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 occasion led Bangladesh to independence. He turned the nation’s founding president.
Hasina, who led Bangladesh for 16 years earlier than her removing final yr, is broadly seen as near India, the place she has been residing since final yr.
Aizaz Chaudhry, Pakistan’s former overseas secretary, mentioned 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 Could battle. Each nations now perceive the necessity for stability of energy in South Asia,” he informed Al Jazeera.
In Could, India and Pakistan fought a short however intense four-day aerial war after gunmen killed 26 individuals, principally 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 Heart for Indo-Pacific Affairs, described Dhaka’s relationship with New Delhi as “lukewarm”, regardless of India being a big neighbour, however added that overseas coverage is pushed by financial imperatives.
“Anti-India sentiment is usually exaggerated,” he mentioned. “Bangladesh traditionally avoids viewing relations, particularly with Pakistan, via a purely safety or navy lens, preferring financial and regional cooperation.”
China’s rising position
Regional dynamics are additional sophisticated by China’s growing influence in South Asia. Beijing, a detailed 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 mentioned 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 Could 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 robust partnership,” Hossain mentioned.
Commerce, politics as international locations 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 variety of political events, together with the Bangladesh Nationalist Get together (BNP), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), and the student-led Nationwide Citizen Get together (NCP), which spearheaded the protests that toppled Hasina.
These conferences had been significantly vital as Bangladesh is getting ready for elections in early 2026, mentioned 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. “We have now points from the previous, however they are often dealt with skilfully and shouldn’t turn into boundaries.”
Each may benefit 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 direction of Pakistan, whose exports to Bangladesh totalled $661m in 2024, in contrast with $57m in imports.
But when each international locations attempt to revitalise commerce relations, Hossain mentioned they may every profit from the opposite – each as a supply of uncooked supplies and as a possible market.
The tutorial mentioned Bangladesh might profit from importing cotton and textile merchandise, rice, cement, fruits and processed meals from Pakistan. Then again, 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 conflict.
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 principally moved to East Pakistan from Bihar in present-day India. East Pakistan — in the present day 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, through which an estimated 300,000 individuals died. The sluggish and largely insufficient response of the West Pakistan-based authorities is cited by many historians as a serious catalyst for the liberation conflict that led to the formation of Bangladesh.
Nonetheless, Chaudhry, the previous Pakistani overseas secretary, argued that public sentiment in each international locations helps reconciliation.
“Folks of Pakistan are additionally as unhappy in regards to the occasions of 1971 because the individuals of Bangladesh. I believe this ache is frequent, and folks in each international locations now wish to transfer on,” Chaudhry mentioned.
Nonetheless, Dhaka College’s Hossain mentioned that, regardless of sturdy help from the present political forces for strengthening Bangladesh-Pakistan relations, points associated to the 1971 conflict proceed to stay a barrier for improved ties.
“You will need to keep in mind that the ouster of Hasina from energy has not basically modified the mindsets of the individuals of Bangladesh in regards to the liberation conflict and an expectation from Pakistan for therapeutic the previous,” Hossain mentioned.
Nonetheless, he added, Dhaka didn’t wish to keep caught prior to now both.
“Diplomacy is a dynamic course of. Each the international locations can transfer ahead for cooperation in financial, diplomatic and cultural sectors, whereas they may proceed to keep up the therapeutic course of,” he mentioned.
