India had extended two separate invitations to Bangladesh PM Tarique Rahman: Jaiswal

India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has said the country had extended two separate invitations to Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman. One was for a bilateral visit and the other was to participate in the BRICS summit as the chairman of BIMESTEC.

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal informed this at the weekly press conference of the MEA on Tuesday (September 15). This explanation came from India’s side amid confusion over whether Tarique Rahman had been invited to the BRICS summit at all.

Randhir Jaiswal said the Bangladesh prime minister was first extended a bilateral invitation for a visit to India. Later he was also invited to participate in the outreach session of the BRICS summit as the current chairman of BIMESTEC.

Bangladesh is not a member or partner country of BRICS. However, the spokesperson of India’s Ministry of External Affairs said Tarique Rahman had been invited to the BRICS outreach session as the chairman of BIMESTEC.

The 18th BRICS summit was held in Delhi on September 12 and 13. Leaders of member and partner countries as well as representatives of various invited countries participated in it.