India's Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri will represent the country at the swearing-in ceremony of Tarique Rahman as Bangladesh's Prime Minister on February 17, sources confirmed to Times Now. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who received an invitation from Bangladesh along with several other regional leaders, is unlikely to attend the event in Dhaka due to scheduled bilateral talks with French President Emmanuel Macron.
The Tarique Rahman-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secured a majority in the recently concluded national elections and is set to take over from the interim administration led by Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus. Bangladesh has extended invitations to leaders from 13 nations for the swearing-in of the new government, including a mix of neighbors and global partners such as China, India, and Pakistan, according to Prothom Alo.
In a phone conversation with Rahman on Friday, PM Modi congratulated the BNP leader on his party's remarkable victory in the Bangladesh parliamentary election. "I conveyed my best wishes and support in his endeavour to fulfil the aspirations of the people of Bangladesh," PM Modi said after the call. He added, "As two close neighbours with deep-rooted historical and cultural ties, I reaffirmed India's continued commitment to the peace, progress, and prosperity of both our peoples."
Earlier the same day, PM Modi had congratulated Rahman for the decisive win in a post on X, formerly Twitter. The BNP responded promptly, thanking India and PM Modi for recognizing the verdict of Bangladesh's general elections and expressing hope that relations between the two countries would be strengthened under the new government.
