# Dhaka Says Bangladesh PM Was Never Invited to BRICS Summit as Prime Minister, Only as BIMSTEC Chair > Bangladesh has confirmed Tarique Rahman will skip the New Delhi summit, with a government minister saying the invitation India extended was tied to his role heading BIMSTEC rather than a bilateral invitation to Bangladesh's Prime Minister. - Source: India Max - Canonical URL: https://indiamax.net/article/dhaka-says-bangladesh-pm-was-never-invited-to-brics-summit-as-prime-minister-only-as-bimstec-chair - Author: India Max Staff - Section: Politics - Published: 2026-09-11T08:05:18.160Z - Updated: 2026-09-11T08:05:18.160Z - Tags: Bangladesh, BRICS, BIMSTEC, Tarique Rahman - Hindi edition: https://indiamax.net/hi/article/dhaka-says-bangladesh-pm-was-never-invited-to-brics-summit-as-prime-minister-only-as-bimstec-chair --- Bangladesh has ruled out Prime Minister Tarique Rahman travelling to New Delhi for the BRICS summit, with Dhaka clarifying that the invitation India extended was never addressed to him as Bangladesh's head of government in the first place. State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir said the invite had gone out to Rahman in his separate capacity as the current chair of BIMSTEC, the seven nation grouping spanning the Bay of Bengal, and not as an invitation to Bangladesh's Prime Minister to join the summit. Kobir said Bangladesh would not be sending any representative to the gathering, framing the distinction between the two roles as central to Dhaka's decision. He argued that Rahman's first visit to India could not be a multilateral one, adding that Bangladesh was placing greater emphasis on a dedicated bilateral visit and direct discussions between the two governments rather than a joint appearance folded into a wider multilateral summit. The clarification comes against the backdrop of an already delayed bilateral engagement. A three day official visit by Rahman to India, originally planned to begin on August 23, was postponed, leaving the two sides without a rescheduled bilateral visit even as the BRICS gathering in New Delhi approached on the calendar. BIMSTEC groups India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand, and Bangladesh currently holds the chair of the bloc, a position that made Rahman a natural invitee to any BIMSTEC linked outreach session at the BRICS summit even without India extending a separate bilateral invitation tied to his premiership. The episode underscores the layer of protocol sensitivity sitting beneath the broader India Bangladesh relationship at the moment, with Dhaka signalling that it wants a full standalone bilateral visit to anchor the relationship rather than having Rahman's first trip to India folded into a multilateral event where he would be present in a regional rather than a national capacity. --- Originally published by India Max. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://indiamax.net/article/dhaka-says-bangladesh-pm-was-never-invited-to-brics-summit-as-prime-minister-only-as-bimstec-chair.