Jaishankar leaves after paying tribute to Khaleda Zia

India’s external affairs minister S Jaishankar has left Dhaka for Chennai after paying his final respects to BNP chairperson and former prime minister Khaleda Zia.

He arrived in the capital on Wednesday morning to pay tribute and departed for Chennai in the afternoon after an approximately four-hour visit.

Bangladesh’s High Commissioner in Delhi, M Riaz Hamidullah, conveyed the details through his X handle. He wrote that Jaishankar’s swift four-hour visit could mark the beginning of a new chapter in Bangladesh–India relations, potentially based on pragmatism and mutual interdependence.

During the visit, the Indian minister held a brief discussion with BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman.

At around 11:30am, Jaishankar handed over a condolence message to Tarique Rahman at the National Parliament House.

He had arrived in Dhaka at 11:30am on a special Indian Air Force flight, and upon landing at the Bashar airbase, he was received by Farhad Hossain, secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.