Pak Foreign Minister on Bangladesh tour after 12 years, what is cooking in both the countries?

Islamabad. Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has announced that he will visit Bangladesh next month, which will be the first visit of a Pakistani minister after 2012. The announcement comes a few weeks after Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Bangladesh Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus met on the sidelines of the D-8 summit in Cairo last month. Former Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar was the last foreign minister to visit Dhaka in 2012.

Speaking at a press conference in Islamabad on Thursday, Ishaq Dar said that he is likely to visit Bangladesh on or after February 5 after returning from Malaysia tour from February 3-5. Noting that Pakistan and Bangladesh are trying to improve their relations after the fall of the Hasina government, Ishaq Dar said: ‘Bangladesh is like a lost brother. Our aim is to strengthen economic and trade cooperation.’

Muhammad Yunus also accepted invitation to visit Pakistan
Ishaq Dar also mentioned his invitation to Yunus and his Bangladeshi counterpart during a meeting in Cairo. According to The Express Tribune newspaper, the foreign minister confirmed that Yunus has also accepted Pakistan’s invitation to visit Islamabad on mutually agreed dates. Muhammad Yunus took over as chief adviser to Pakistan after then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power following student-led protests on August 5 last year.

Following the new-found friendship, the first direct cargo ship from Karachi arrived at Bangladesh’s Chittagong port in mid-November, which officials said was a major step in bilateral trade. The second cargo ship arrived in Bangladesh from Pakistan in late December. Bangladesh has already announced to resume direct flights from Pakistan soon. During their meeting in Cairo, Shehbaz Sharif had called for strategic ties between Dhaka and Islamabad and said, “We are looking forward to strengthening our relations with our brother-country Bangladesh.”

Bangladesh asks PAK to resolve 1971 issues
However, Bangladesh had asked Pakistan to resolve the 1971 issues to help Dhaka advance its ties with Islamabad “forever for future generations”. Yunus urged Sharif to resolve the 1971 issues to help Dhaka advance its ties with Islamabad and said: “Issues have been coming up again and again. Let us resolve those issues to move forward.” Relations between Pakistan and Bangladesh remained strained during Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year tenure.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s The Business Standard reported that Bangladesh has repeatedly wanted Pakistan to “publicly apologise with a formal declaration” for the atrocities committed against unarmed Bengalis in 1971 during the previous regime. It said that in February 2023, Bangladesh had conveyed the same message to Pakistan’s then Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.