The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Tuesday rejected confusion over Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman's BRICS Summit invite and clarified that he had received two separate invitation from India.
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, "We had invited the Prime Minister of Bangladesh on a bilateral visit, and subsequently, he was invited for the BRICS Summit as chair of BIMSTEC. So, he had received two invitations, one on the bilateral side and the other for the BRICS Summit as well..."
The clarification from the MEA on Tuesday came after Bangladeshi officials had said Rahman was not invited to the summit in his capacity as Bangladesh’s prime minister.
Bangladesh is neither a BRICS member nor a partner country. India had invited Rahman to the outreach session of the 18th BRICS Summit in his capacity as the current chair of Bimstec, according to an earlier MEA briefing.
However, he did not attend the BRICS Summit, held on September 12-13 in New Delhi. Bangladesh Foreign Affairs Minister Humaiun Kobir reportedly said that he was not invited to the summit and the invitation was instead extended to the BIMSTEC Chair.
“How shall we go? Has anyone from the Bangladesh government been invited? Our prime minister was not invited. Who told you that our Prime Minister was invited? The BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) Chair was invited.” Kobir was quoted as saying by Bangladeshi news outlet The Daily Star.
BIMSTEC is a regional grouping comprising India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan.