What Bangladesh's Resumption of Direct Trade With Pakistan Means

Warming ties come as Dhaka leans away from Delhi, signaling shift in regional dynamics

- Ashraf Khan

KARACHI, Pakistan — A Pakistani-flagged vessel pulled into Chittagong Port on March 5 from where it will go on to Mongla Port, both in Bangladesh, at which it is set to discharge its cargo of 26,250 tonnes of premium basmati rice.

This shipment of rice, together with an earlier one of 25,000 tonnes in October 2024 from Karachi to Chittagong, marks a historic breakthrough — the resumption of government-to-government trade between the two countries after a hiatus of 53 years following the declaration of independence by East Pakistan as Bangladesh in 1971 after a bitter civil war with West Pakistan, today's Pakistan.

In the intervening five decades, despite the normalization of ties in 1975, hostility ensued between the two sides, fueled largely by the Awami League in Bangladesh.

This was the political party founded by Mr Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's independence leader and father of the recently deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who, in multiple terms as premier totaling 20 years, took an anti-Pakistan stance and put diplomatic ties on the back burner.

The resumption of direct trade, including the rice shipments, followed the bottoming out of the diplomatic impasse between the two sides in August 2024 with the ouster of Ms Hasina.

"We have hammered out a deal with the Bangladeshi government to roll out 50,000 tonnes of high-quality rice in two equal consignments," an official from the Trading Corporation of Pakistan told The Straits Times.

Its significance goes beyond the rekindling of trade between the two sides.

"This could mark the end of a 53-year diplomatic impasse in South Asia, with the potential to shake up regional dynamics," remarked Dr Riaz Ahmed Shaikh, dean of the departments of social sciences and media sciences at Szabist University in Karachi.