New Delhi: Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s proposed visit to India this month remains under negotiation, with no date yet confirmed despite the urgency of talks on renewing the Ganga Waters Treaty, securing additional fuel supplies and expanding bilateral trade, while the issue of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s continued political activities in India remains a factor in the discussions.A diplomatic source told The Wire said the earliest possible window for Rahman’s visit was August 21-23, though there was no confirmation that he would travel on those dates.Bangladesh’s Daily Star newspaper, meanwhile, reported that Dhaka and New Delhi were discussing dates between August 20 and 25, with August 20-21 and August 21-22 among the schedules under consideration.The visit is being planned as a bilateral engagement rather than around the BRICS summit in New Delhi, which Rahman is not expected to attend. A diplomatic source said the BRICS summit had never been under serious consideration as the occasion for his first visit, as a substantive bilateral engagement would be needed to address issues such as the Ganga treaty.The uncertainty over the timing comes as Bangladesh faces pressing energy and economic concerns. The country is experiencing prolonged power cuts and needs additional fuel supplies, while Dhaka is also seeking to streamline trade with India as it struggles with high inflation.Earlier on Thursday, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said that Dhaka’s “additional request” for fuel supplies would be “examined keeping in mind our own requirement, our refining capacity, as also the availability of diesel here in our country”.The Ganga Waters Treaty, which expires in December, is another major issue requiring attention from the two governments. The agreement governs the sharing of Ganga waters between India and Bangladesh during the dry season, making its renewal a major concern for Dhaka.The push for a bilateral visit goes back to Rahman’s swearing-in. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla represented India at the February 17 ceremony in Dhaka and handed Rahman a personal letter from Prime Minister Narendra Modi inviting him to visit India “at the earliest convenience.”That invitation has stayed open through the months since, even as ties between the two governments swung between limited normalisation and repeated friction. However, Rahman chose Malaysia for his first overseas visit in June, followed by China.India subsequently extended a separate invitation to Rahman for the BRICS summit that New Delhi will host on September 12-13. Bangladesh, which currently chairs BIMSTEC, was invited as a special guest.The India visit is politically sensitive for Rahman, especially in the aftermath of India’s testy relationship with the interim government after ouster of Hasina, who was seen as very close to New Delhi. The BNP government has to navigate deep-seated anti-India sentiment at home, while seeking substantive outcomes from any India visit to quell criticism on the domestic front.However, for Rahman, the domestic political backdrop for any proposed visit has become more complicated following Sheikh Hasina’s latest announcement from India.On August 5, two years after she fled Bangladesh, Hasina held her first live interaction with journalists since her ouster, taking questions during an online audio conference from New Delhi. She had previously given interviews and made political statements from India, but the live question-and-answer session marked a more direct public intervention by the former prime minister.Hasina said she intended to return to Bangladesh in December and would face the legal process there. She has been living in India after she fled Dhaka to escape a mass uprising led by students brought down her Awami League government.Her continued presence in India has been a central source of tension between Dhaka and New Delhi. Bangladesh has sought her extradition to face proceedings in the country, and after she was sentenced to death in November 2025, Dhaka again formally asked India to hand her over. India has said it is examining the request in accordance with its legal and judicial procedures.The August 5 interaction triggered a fresh diplomatic reaction from Dhaka. The Bangladesh foreign ministry criticised India for allowing Hasina to hold the event, describing the development as deeply hurtful and expressing outrage.After a strongly-worded protest from Dhaka, India reiterated that it had no role in the press interaction and underlined that it did not endorse any remarks against Bangladesh’s “duly constituted government”.The controversy did not, however, stop the scheduled diplomatic engagement between Rahman and India’s new High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Dinesh Trivedi.Trivedi met Rahman in Dhaka on August 10 in his first meeting with the prime minister since taking charge as envoy. According to a statement from Rahman’s office, the Bangladesh prime minister stressed the need to create a conducive environment for improving bilateral relations. Bangladesh also reiterated its request that India expedite Hasina’s extradition.Trivedi travelled to New Delhi immediately afterwards and met Modi on August 11. The meeting was publicly posted by the Indian High Commission, which said the envoy had sought Modi’s guidance on taking forward efforts to improve relations with Bangladesh.While both sides have an interest in moving towards a substantive bilateral engagement, the Hasina issue remains unresolved and has complicated efforts to settle the date.A diplomatic source indicated that the issue was one reason there was still no confirmation of the visit, but did not suggest that Dhaka’s demand for Hasina’s extradition was a condition that India was expected to accept. The source said extradition was not something Dhaka realistically expected to obtain from New Delhi.Instead, Bangladesh was likely seeking a strong assurance at the highest level that Hasina would not be allowed to use Indian territory for political activities that could affect bilateral ties. It was not clear, however, what form such an assurance might take or how far New Delhi would be willing to go in making such a commitment public.