Pakistan moves closer to Bangladesh after Hasina over India’s shared concerns | Politics News

Islamabad, Pakistan – With the flags of their countries placed on a table between them, Pakistan’s army chief, General Asim Munir, sat with Lt. Gen. SM Kamrul Hassan, an officer in the Bangladeshi army.

It was the highlight of Hassan’s trip to the Pakistani capital, where he met with other high-ranking Pakistani military officials. Commenting on the meeting between Munir and Hassan on Tuesday, the media wing of the Pakistan Army described the two countries as “brotherly nations”.

Dhaka and Islamabad have not viewed their relationship that way for most of the 54 years since Bangladesh split from Pakistan, winning independence after one of the bloodiest wars of the 20th century.

The strain in their relationship only deepened during the nearly 16-year rule of the Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasinawho was ousted in August after mass protests and forced to flee to neighboring India, which supported her government.

But since Hasa’s departure, Pakistan and Bangladesh have drawn closer to each other in an apparent reset at a time when politics in both countries has a general anti-India sentiment, overcoming the historic enmity between Islamabad and Dhaka.

Munir and Hassan “emphasized the importance of strengthening military ties and reaffirmed their commitment to insulate this partnership from any external disruptions,” the Pakistani military said. And their meeting was one of a series of high-level exchanges between the nations.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Muhammad Yunus, head of Bangladesh’s interim government, during an international summit in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, last month after the two also met in September on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

And Pakistan’s foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, is due to visit Bangladesh next month, the first such trip since 2012, prompting analysts to suggest that the geopolitical ground in South Asia could be shifting.

Solving problems ‘once and for all’

The genesis of the historical enmity between Islamabad and Dhaka lies in the liberation war of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971. The Pakistani army and its allied militias battled Bengali insurgents and massacred hundreds of thousands of people, according to independent estimates. These estimates indicate that at least 200,000 women were raped.

Aided by the Indian Army, Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and his Awami League party led Bangladesh to independence. He became its founder and president and earned the title “Father of the Nation”.

While Pakistan accepted Bangladesh’s independence in 1974 under the Tripartite Agreement with India, unresolved issues between Islamabad and Dhaka persisted. These included Pakistan’s lack of an official apology for its crimes, the repatriation of Urdu-speaking people from Bangladesh who identify as Pakistanis, and the division of pre-1971 assets between the two nations.

During a meeting in Cairo with Sharif, Yunus urged Pakistan to resolve lingering issues.

“Problems came up again and again. Let’s solve them once and for all for future generations,” Yunus told Sharif, according to Bangladesh’s state-run news agency.

Sharif replied that he would look into “unresolved issues”, the agency reported.

Changed dynamics

Ashraf Qureshi, a former Pakistani envoy to Bangladesh, told Al Jazeera that strained ties between India and Bangladesh due to New Delhi’s long-standing support for Hasa’s “autocratic” government may have prompted the new administration in Dhaka to reconsider its moves.

Last month, Yunus’ interim government demanded that New Delhi extradite Hasina for “judicial process”. Hasina is accused of overseeing a series of human rights abuses during her rule, including a crackdown on protesters in the weeks leading up to her ouster. The Indian government has not yet responded to the request.

India, for its part, has repeatedly expressed concern about the fate of Hindus in Bangladesh, who make up about 8 percent of Bangladesh’s 170 million people and have traditionally been strong supporters of the Awami League. New Delhi suggested that they were being persecuted.

Bangladeshi authorities strongly rejected the allegations, adding that misinformation from the Indian media it caused tension between the neighbors.

“Certainly, if you are Bangladesh, you would weigh your options, and given the state of their relationship with India, Pakistan comes into the equation, leading to better ties than before,” Qureshi said.

Qureshi said that India is also facing a dilemma over Hasina. “India cannot just hand over Hasina because that would signal that India would be happy to abandon anyone who supported her,” he said.

But Walter Ladwig, a senior lecturer at King’s College London, cautioned against exaggerating the significance of recent diplomatic and military exchanges between Pakistan and Bangladesh.

“I think this is a significant event given where the bilateral relationship has been for the past 15 years, but at the same time, I would be careful not to read too much into it. The two countries still have historical tensions and different interests,” Ladwig told Al Jazeera.

Qureshi also warned that the geographical reality of the region meant that Bangladesh could not afford to take an anti-India stance.

“It shares a long border with them. Their water source comes from India. At best, they may take a somewhat independent political stance compared to Sheikh Hasina’s time, but they would not take an anti-India stance,” he said.

Ladwig agreed.

“A number of political actors within Bangladesh were open in recognizing the realities of geography and economics. These are trends worth watching, but they must be accompanied by a series of significant policy changes before we begin to reassess regional geopolitics,” he said.

India’s engagement with the Taliban

Bangladesh’s growing relationship with Pakistan also comes amid broader geopolitical moves reshaping South Asia, including India dramatic engagement with Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers in recent months.

Although New Delhi has yet to formally recognize the Taliban government, top Indian officials recently met with their Afghan counterparts. Last week, Indian Foreign Minister Vikram Misri met Afghanistan’s Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Dubai in the highest-profile public meeting between New Delhi and the Taliban.

India’s diplomatic engagements with the Taliban are infuriated Pakistanwhich has sponsored the armed group for decades and sheltered its leaders as they battled US-led forces in the country.

But Islamabad’s influence over the Taliban was severely weakened last year when Pakistan saw a spike in deadly attacks, many blamed on the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, which shares an ideological affinity with the Afghan Taliban.

Pakistan claims that TTP fighters have been given shelter and training on Afghan soil – which the Taliban denies. Tensions between Islamabad and Kabul reached a peak last month when the two countries exchanged airstrikes.

Burhanul Islam, another former Pakistani diplomat, said improving ties between Pakistan and Bangladesh could be seen as a “new beginning” after Hasina’s ouster.

“Perhaps Bangladesh is seeking military support and security umbrella from Pakistan. I hope the two countries are now moving in the right direction and their military leadership wants to improve relations with Pakistan,” Islam told Al Jazeera.

‘Economic opening’

Ladwig believes that despite recent setbacks due to last summer’s mass uprising, Bangladesh’s economy is steadily growing – a factor that may be pushing Islamabad towards better ties.

“Pakistan needs all the economic partners it can get, which is another incentive for Islamabad to try to improve ties,” he said.

With a growth rate of 6 percent from 2021, Bangladesh is one of the fastest growing economies in South Asia. Pakistan, on the other hand, lags far behind, managing to achieve growth of only 2.5 percent last year.

The volume of trade between the two countries remains volatile. Pakistan’s exports to Bangladesh were valued at $661 million, while imports were $57 million, according to official data. Last year, bilateral trade amounted to more than 700 million dollars.

Ladwig believes that commerce is an area that could see major changes in the coming days.

“After a period during which there were no direct flights between the two capitals, diplomatic engagement was minimal and people faced difficulties in obtaining visas, any relaxation will be visible,” he said.

“I think the Pakistani government feels an opening and an opportunity to improve ties.”