India foreign policy thread

[uksyl]

@Moderators, I would like to pre-emptively request that you keep this thread clean and free of ad hominem personal attacks and low quality troll posts.

@MNZGamerX
The parameters in which Bangladesh operates viz a viz foreign policy are the same regardless of which party is in power and both major parties, the Awami League and BNP operate within those parameters. It is worth noting that both parties are genetically descendants of the Muslim league and represent the majority sentiment amongst east Bengalis/Bangladeshis.

1. We need to have good relations with the USA and west. They rule the world and we export our garments to them. We cannot get into a major conflict with them. The same sort of religious extremists who hate India will not urge conflict with the USA which has killed far more Muslims or invaded and destroyed far more Muslim countries e.g. Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza than India ever has.

2. We need to have good relations with the GCC due to remittances from there.
3. We need to have good relations with China which supports us militarily as well as economically.


Even Turkey on a nation-to-nation basis is a country which we have good ties irrespective of which major party is in power. So even during the previous Awami League administration we developed ties with them including on the military front.

As for India, the Awami League's soft spot for them is known but they had issues with India too e.g. disappointment over Teesta. Our national interests remain the same whether it is Awami League or BNP in power and it is not in our national interest to have either a hot war with India or even a cold war et la Pakistan v India, and the BNP know that, hence they will seek to cultivate ties with our giant western neighbour and this can be evidenced by some of the news articles I have posted here in the past few weeks.


One should not conflate the extreme India-hatred and inflammatory rhetoric from certain dark and unsavoury elements online who can spew India-hatred with impunity with the actual behaviour of the national government who have to deliver economic progress, e.g. jobs to the electorate. If they fail to deliver that they will either be removed electorally or failing that removed by force as Hasina was.

Bangladesh's economic development is dependent on good relations with India.

 

[MNZGamerX]

While Bangladesh may wish to be friends with all the big powers they have objectives and agendas of their own and while the political parties may seek to accommodate all of them it will come at a cost and satisfy none of them ... I fear that the Interim Government and now the BNP are beating the drum too loudly ...

 

[LeonBlack08]

While Bangladesh may wish to be friends with all the big powers they have objectives and agendas of their own and while the political parties may seek to accommodate all of them it will come at a cost and satisfy none of them ... I fear that the Interim Government and now the BNP are beating the drum too loudly ...

Balancing act isn't a sustainable strategy. It never works.

Non alignment isn't possible either in today's world. Even if we want to, the greater powers around us won't allow it.

Eventually Bangladesh will have to take a stance and choose a camp. BAL was heading towards that with complete dedication towards India. The poor balancing game Hasina played came crumbling down during the 2024 China visit.

It remains to be seen which camp the BNP eventually chooses - India, US or China.

 

[Yasser76]

Kiwis are the nicest people on the planet, but even they have limits

Modi visits New Zealand as trade deal sparks India pushback​

AFP Published July 10, 2026 Updated about 4 hours ago

https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=dawn.com
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi lands in New Zealand on Friday touting a free trade deal that has sparked a backlash despite promises it will unlock jobs and economic riches.

On the agenda are trade, tourism and sport — but recent undercurrents of anti-migrant sentiment risk tarnishing his trip to a nation long proud of its tolerance.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon celebrated the signing in April of the free trade deal with the world’s most populous nation, touting an export boom that would deliver jobs and investment in spades.



The pact is widely expected to be approved by New Zealand’s parliament. But not everyone is happy at the prospect.



Lawmakers in the populist New Zealand First Party, part of Luxon’s governing coalition, railed against parts of the agreement covering migration and visas.

“I don’t care how much criticism we get, I am just never going to agree with a butter chicken tsunami coming to New Zealand,” government minister Shane Jones told a local radio show.

An Indian community leader accused Jones of “outright racism”.

A prominent evangelical preacher went even further when he heard Indian leader Modi would soon be arriving on New Zealand’s shores.

Self-proclaimed “apostle” Brian Tamaki accused Modi of vilifying Christians in India — and suggested New Zealanders should retaliate in kind.


“Let’s purge New Zealand of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims,” Tamaki said on Instagram.

“While we’re at it, if they’re burning churches down, why don’t we burn mosques and their temples down? Tit for tat,” he said, in comments condemned by New Zealand’s race relations commissioner as “utterly appalling”.

Indigenous Maori activist Che Wilson was earlier this year accused of insulting an Indian-born New Zealand lawmaker with a cultural “haka” performance that allegedly included several mocking references tinged by race.

Massey University anthropologist Sita Venkateswar said Modi was visiting as Indian-New Zealanders were being singled out and “denigrated”.

“A ‘butter chicken tsunami’, slurs set to a haka, graffiti on a school wall – South Asians are already the most frequent targets of racially motivated incidents in our data,” she told AFP.

“That is real and it is wrong.” Modi will be in New Zealand for little more than a day, at the tail end of a July 6-11 tour that has also taken him to Indonesia and Australia.

He will be attending an official ceremony at the Government House and a business and sport event in Auckland — the first visit to the country by an Indian leader in 40 years.

The big event is expected to be Modi’s starring role before as many as 10,000 people from the Indian diaspora at a community event in Auckland’s Spark Arena.

Despite the negative rhetoric about their ties from some quarters, New Zealand’s Luxon has been promoting a welcoming image for Modi’s visit to a country that is home to an Indian diaspora of about 300,000.

“This visit is about celebrating a winning partnership between New Zealand and India — one that delivers for our people and supports greater prosperity and security for both our countries,” he said.

Modi visits New Zealand as trade deal sparks India pushback

Recent undercurrents of anti-migrant sentiment risk tarnishing Modi's trip to a nation long proud of its tolerance.

www.dawn.com