DHAKA - Bangladesh will not send any official representative to the 18th BRICS Summit being hosted by India in New Delhi, after Dhaka clarified that Prime Minister Tarique Rahman had not been invited in his capacity as head of the Bangladesh government. State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir made the clarification while speaking to reporters in Dhaka on Thursday, September 10, 2026, ruling out any possibility of Rahman's participation in the summit taking place at Bharat Mandapam on September 12 and 13.
Invitation Was Extended to BIMSTEC Chair, Not Bangladesh's Prime Minister
Kobir told reporters that the invitation India extended was directed at Rahman in his role as the current chair of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, commonly known as BIMSTEC, and not as the prime minister of Bangladesh. "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? The BIMSTEC Chair was invited," Kobir said, according to reporting from Dhaka-based outlets including the Daily Star and Dhaka Tribune.
India's Ministry of External Affairs had earlier confirmed the nature of the invitation. Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated during a briefing in New Delhi that India had invited Rahman to attend the outreach session of the BRICS Summit specifically in his capacity as BIMSTEC Chair, a position Bangladesh has held since 2025 for a two-year term. BIMSTEC comprises seven member states: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Bangladesh is not a member or partner nation of BRICS itself, which limited any participation to the outreach segment of the summit rather than the core leaders' sessions.
Jaiswal also noted that a separate invitation for a bilateral visit by Rahman to India has been in place since February 2026. Kobir confirmed this, stating that Bangladesh's government is working to arrange a bilateral visit by the prime minister to India, though he said the timing would need to be appropriate. He added that Rahman's first visit to India could not take the form of a multilateral engagement such as the BRICS outreach session, and that there was "no justification for rushing into a top-level visit by going beyond the national interest," a position he had also articulated in an earlier interview when he served as Bangladesh's foreign affairs adviser.
Decision Comes Amid Continued Strain in India-Bangladesh Relations
The clarification follows weeks of speculation over whether Rahman might use the BRICS Summit as the occasion for his first visit to India since assuming office. Reports last month, including one from ThePrint, had indicated that Rahman was unlikely to undertake a bilateral visit to India in the near term and was expected to skip the BRICS gathering altogether. Kobir had at the time dismissed such reports as "baseless and assumption-driven," maintaining that Bangladesh would not be rushed into a high-level visit.
Bangladesh's decision to stay away from the summit comes against the backdrop of continued tension between New Delhi and Dhaka. These strains include the presence of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in India following her removal from power, outstanding extradition requests linked to her, unresolved water-sharing treaty negotiations between the two countries, and Dhaka's deepening engagement with China and Pakistan under the current administration. Humaiun Kobir, who also serves as joint secretary general for international affairs of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and as an adviser to the prime minister on foreign affairs, has been a prominent voice on Bangladesh's approach to regional diplomacy, including its posture toward India, since returning to active politics after the fall of the Hasina government in August 2024.
India's BRICS Presidency Continues With Outreach to Non-Member Nations
India assumed the BRICS chairmanship for 2026 and is hosting the 18th BRICS Leaders' Summit at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on September 12 and 13, bringing together leaders of BRICS member states, partner countries, and outreach invitees, including United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. Under India's chairmanship this year, more than 350 meetings and high-level engagements have been held across over 25 Indian cities as part of efforts to strengthen the BRICS partnership across its three principal pillars, political and security cooperation, economic and financial cooperation, and cultural and people-to-people exchange.
With Bangladesh's absence now confirmed, the outreach session will proceed without a representative from Dhaka, even as both governments continue working toward a separate bilateral visit by Prime Minister Rahman to India at a time both sides consider appropriate.
