India’s PM Modi heads to Bangladesh with vaccines as Beijing highlights friendship with Dhaka

As Bangladesh marks 50 years of independence from Pakistan, it is hoping not to have to choose between New Delhi and Beijing

Xi Jinping recently underlined ties with Dhaka in the first-ever message he recorded for another country’s domestic programme

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi receives a bouquet of flowers from Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka on March 26. Photo: AP

Published: 5:16pm, 26 Mar 2021Updated: 5:21pm, 26 Mar 2021

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Bangladesh on Friday bearing the gift of an additional 1.2 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, as part of efforts to smoothen ties with a smaller neighbour that is increasingly reliant on China for investment.

The two-day visit is Modi’s first international trip since the Covid-19 pandemic began last year, and is timed to mark Bangladesh’s 50th anniversary of independence from India’s rival Pakistan as well as to celebrate the centenary of the late Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s first president and the father of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

On the eve of his departure, Modi said he would hold “substantive discussions” with Hasina, who on Friday morning received him at the Dhaka airport. In the past 10 days, Bangladesh has welcomed high-profile visitors such as Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Nepali President Bidya Devi Bhandari, the Maldives’ President Ibrahim Solih and Bhutanese Prime Minister Lotay Tshering as part of the centenary celebrations.

Since its independence, Bangladesh has become one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, fuelled by its garment production industry, which is the world’s second largest behind China.

While Dhaka has traditionally been in New Delhi’s orbit of influence, ties were strained after the Indian parliament – dominated by Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – approved a new citizenship law in December 2019 that fast-tracked citizenship for non-Muslim refugees of neighbouring countries, including Muslim-majority Bangladesh.