Delegation to China13 Apr 2026 11:11
From digit
https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/bangladesh-government-starts-china-outreach-to-send-20-member-delegation-this-week/article70854524.ece
Looks a promising delegation for 16 to 24 April with an agenda to achieve on majjor projects in Bangladesh. Digit has pasted it
In its first outreach to China, the newly elected Bangladesh government will send a 20-member delegation to Beijing this month. The team, led by the General Secretary of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, will depart from Dhaka on April 16 and is expected to return on April 24.
The delegation includes Ismail Zabihullah, adviser to Prime Minister Tarique Rahman; popular singer Baby Nazneen; and Sanjida Tuly, the convener of the voluntary organisation Mayer Dak, who led the campaign demanding investigations into numerous cases of extrajudicial arrests and killings during Sheikh Hasina’s tenure. The team also includes current BNP Member of Parliament and retired Air Vice Marshal Altaf Hossain Choudhury. The BNP delegation’s visit is expected to be followed by a trip from Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman, who visited India from April 8 to 10.
One of the areas where Bangladesh–China relations have expanded in the past one and a half years is medical tourism, as lingering visa issues between India and Bangladesh have prompted Bangladeshi patients to seek treatment in Chinese hospitals in Kunming, which has air connectivity with Bangladesh. While details of the upcoming tour remain unavailable, it is understood that the Bangladeshi delegation will meet senior Chinese officials, given that Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir is the seniormost Minister in the Tarique Rahman government, which came to power after winning the February 12 election.
Apart from commercial ties, China is also involved in several major projects in Bangladesh, including the Teesta River Comprehensive Management and Restoration Project, which aims to reduce flooding in the plains near northern West Bengal, including the strategically vital ‘Siliguri Corridor’. The project is currently under technical evaluation, though there is an expectation that Teesta-related projects will be prioritised, as the BNP pledged to secure a “fair share” of the Teesta’s waters from India in its February 2026 election manifesto.
With the fall of the Awami League government in August 2024, the Chinese government intensified its outreach to the BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, and the National Citizen Party (NCP) – which consists mainly student activists who led the anti-Sheikh Hasina protests of July-August 2024. As part of this initiative, China had sponsored a visit by five BNP members in June 2025, which was also led by Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.