India invites Bangladesh PM Tarique Rahman to BRICS outreach session

India has invited Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman to attend the BRICS summit outreach session in New Delhi as BIMSTEC chair. The invitation follows standard BRICS practice and comes amid fresh diplomatic unease over Sheikh Hasina's planned virtual media interaction

New Delhi: India on Tuesday said it extended an invitation to Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman to attend the outreach session of the upcoming BRICS summit in New Delhi in his capacity as current chair of BIMSTEC.

India is hosting the annual BRICS summit in New Delhi on September 12 and 13 that is expected to deliberate extensively on a number of pressing global challenges including the economic consequences of the West Asia crisis.

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New Delhi’s confirmation on inviting Rahman came amid some fresh unease in ties between the two countries over former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s plan to hold a virtual media interaction in New Delhi on Wednesday.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India has nothing to do with Hasina’s planned news conference, emphasising that it does not endorse any views that may be expressed during the event. Jaiswal, responding to a question, said that an invitation was extended to Rahman to undertake a bilateral visit to India after he assumed the charge of the top office in February.

“As far as the BRICS summit is concerned, India has separately extended an invitation to the Bangladesh prime minister in his capacity as the current chair of BIMSTEC to attend the outreach session of the 18th BRICS Summit,” he said at a regular media briefing.

“The invitation has been extended as per the standard practice being followed in BRICS for the outreach sessions. Other heads of regional groups have also been invited in a similar manner,” he said. Without divulging much details, he said India was making preparations for the BRICS summit and extending invitations. New Delhi is hosting the BRICS summit in its capacity as its current chair.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Russian President Vladimir Putin are among the top leaders expected to attend the summit. BRICS, originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, expanded in 2024 to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates, with Indonesia joining in 2025.

It emerged as an influential grouping as it brings together 11 major emerging economies of the world, representing around 49.5 per cent of the global population, around 40 per cent of the global GDP and around 26 per cent of the global trade.

A meeting of the foreign ministers of the grouping’s member states in May had ended without a joint statement as sharp differences between Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over the West Asia conflict were on full display. BRICS operates under a framework of consensus and India had issued a chair’s statement and outcome document featuring two specific paragraphs where unanimity could not be reached.

India has invited leaders of a number of non-BRICS countries to attend the outreach session of the summit. The BIMSTEC or Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation is a regional grouping comprising India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan.