India and Bangladesh put off consular talks due in Dhaka on November 17 and 18

India and Bangladesh have postponed their consular dialogue, which was due to open in Dhaka on November 17 and 18, with no new date fixed. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal confirmed the delay at his weekly briefing in New Delhi on Friday, November 13, saying the next round would be held “on a mutually convenient date”.

It would have been the fifth round of a dialogue that began in 2017. The fourth was held in New Delhi in May 2024, ahead of Sheikh Hasina’s fall in August that year. The two governments run more than 40 bilateral platforms, of which the consular dialogue is one.

What the ministry said

Jaiswal said India wants “a positive, constructive and forward-looking relationship” with Bangladesh. He said cooperation has continued through structured mechanisms on trade, railways, water resources and border management, and that meetings have been held under them. “India remains ready to discuss all bilateral issues with Bangladesh through these existing mechanisms,” he said, including at the technical level.

The rescheduled round, he said, will also cover the revised travel arrangement between the two countries. The ministry did not explain what the arrangement contains, and no source read for this report spells it out.

Asked about Dhaka’s demand for Hasina’s extradition, Jaiswal said it is a legal matter that will be dealt with accordingly. On the Ganga Water Treaty, he pointed to the Joint Rivers Commission as the mechanism for discussion and said he had no update. According to a report from Dhaka, he made no comment on a claim that New Delhi had set conditions for any return by Hasina, namely that the Bangladesh Army bring her back and that she be guaranteed an appeal and a fresh trial.

Dhaka’s account

Bangladesh’s side of the story differs in emphasis. Saidur Rahman, press minister at the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, said India had proposed November 17 and 18 in a diplomatic note at the end of October. Dhaka replied last week asking for a later date in November, “convenient for Bangladesh”.

He rejected any link to the former prime minister. Hasina’s London lawyers wrote to his mission on November 9 asking for a new passport and ID card, and Rahman said the postponement was decided at least four days before that, so it had “absolutely no connection” with the request. An inter-ministerial meeting in Dhaka on November 3 had met to prepare for the talks.

Neither government has said which side first asked for the delay. Our earlier report on Dhaka’s refusal of Hasina’s passport sets out where that dispute stands.

A strained year

Hasina, 79, fled Dhaka on August 5, 2024, after a student-led uprising and has lived in India since. A Dhaka tribunal sentenced her to death in absentia in November 2025. Dhaka has asked India to extradite her repeatedly since December 2024.

Ties were strained further after a virtual media interaction she gave in New Delhi on August 5 this year. India said it neither played a part in the event nor endorsed her comments; Bangladesh’s foreign ministry said it was “outraged” that it was allowed despite Dhaka’s concerns.

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, whose BNP won the February elections, was invited to make a bilateral visit to India and to join the outreach session of the BRICS summit in New Delhi in September. He did not attend the summit, and there is no word on when he might come.

Why it matters

The consular dialogue is the platform where the revised travel arrangement is due to be taken up, and that now waits on a date neither side has named.

The calendar adds pressure. The Ganga Water Treaty expires in December, and the same month is when Hasina has said she wants to go home. Both bring Delhi and Dhaka back to the table, whatever the state of the consular channel.

What next

No date has been set for the fifth round. India’s line is that the existing mechanisms stay open, which leaves the Joint Rivers Commission on the Ganga treaty and the extradition request as the next tests of whether talks resume before December.