Bangladesh has expressed its willingness to consider, under appropriate strategic conditions, joining a regional grouping with Pakistan that would exclude India in a formulation that Dhaka believes is not feasible for several other South Asian countries.
State-run newspaper Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha reported that foreign advisor Md Touhid Hossain, while speaking about the changing regional dynamics, remarked: “It is possible for us (Bangladesh) strategically… (but) it is not possible for Nepal or Bhutan to form a group with Pakistan to the exclusion of India.”
The comment by a senior Bangladeshi official was widely read as a response to Islamabad’s recent proposal for new multilateral alignments in the region.
The assessment comes days after Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar told an “Islamabad conclave” that a trilateral initiative involving Pakistan, China and Bangladesh was already underway and could eventually expand to other states.
According to the Bangladeshi media outlet, Hossain noted that Dar “said something, and maybe at some point that could lead to progress.”
Speaking at the opening session of the 5th Islamabad Conclave organized by the Islamabad Institute of Strategic Studies (ISSI), Dar had warned that South Asia could no longer afford to remain trapped in “zero-sum game mentality, political fragmentation and dysfunctional regional architecture”.
He said Pakistan sought “open and inclusive regionalism” and signaled support for emerging multilateral platforms outside SAARC.
Dar said earlier this year that Pakistan, Bangladesh and China had established a trilateral mechanism to foster mutual collaboration in areas of common interest.
“This concept can be extended and replicated. As I have said before, groups with variable geometry – on issues ranging from economics to regional priorities – cannot and should not be hostage to anyone’s rigidity,” Dar said, in a veiled reference to India.
