Correspondent in New Delhi and Dhaka
New Delhi, July 12: Former External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid will travel to Dhaka on Thursday to participate in an international conference on Bangladesh and the World Order. He will reach on Thursday and remain in the Bangladeshi capital for two days till Saturday, Khurshid told Thenewssite.in .
Speaking exclusively to Thenewssite.in in New Delhi on Saturday, Khurshid confirmed his visit, saying he looks forward to engaging in discussions.
Photo: TheNewsSite.In/ Ayanangsha Maitra.
When asked whether he would meet India’s High Commissioner Dinesh Trivedi in Dhaka, Khurshid said, “If he would like to meet me there, I would certainly meet him.”
But there was no communication from High Commissioner to former EAM Khurshid, Thenewssite.in confirmed.
The conference is expected to bring together policymakers, diplomats, academics, and strategic affairs experts to deliberate on Bangladesh’s place in an increasingly multipolar world. Khurshid is extremely popular and celebrated face in Bangladesh. His participation is expected to draw significant attention given his extensive diplomatic experience and his longstanding engagement with India-Bangladesh relations during this tenure as the External Affairs Minister of India.
During his tenure in the government of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Khurshid had a commendable role in advancing New Delhi’s engagement with Dhaka. His period in office witnessed substantial progress in bilateral relations, with both countries working towards resolving longstanding issues related to border management, connectivity, trade, and regional cooperation, an India observer in Dhaka told Thenewssite.in .
Beyond official diplomacy, Khurshid has remained an influential public voice on issues of India’s pluralist identity, particularly the place of Muslims within India’s democratic framework. He has often argued that India’s large Muslim population gives the country a distinctive position in engaging with the Islamic world—not as a Muslim-majority state, but as a secular democracy capable of building meaningful partnerships with Muslim-majority nations.
At the Dhaka conference, Khurshid is expected to share his perspectives on the changing global order and the role South Asian democracies can play in shaping it. Discussions are likely to include the impact of great-power competition involving the United States, China, and Russia and the future of regional groupings.
He is also expected to highlight the importance of dialogue, rules-based regional cooperation, and the contribution that democracies, including Bangladesh and India, can make toward a more inclusive and multipolar international order. Drawing on India’s experience in balancing strategic interests with its engagement across the Islamic world, Khurshid is likely to stress the value of cooperative regionalism over confrontation.
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