After India urged authorities in Dhaka to avoid negativity in bilateral ties, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar once again addressed Bangladesh’s hostile stance. He stated, "Bangladesh has to decide what kind of ties it wants with India.”

Speaking just a week after meeting his counterpart, Touhid Hossain, in Muscat, Jaishankar pointed out Dhaka cannot claim to seek good relations with India while simultaneously blaming it for internal issues.

"If every day someone in the interim govt stands up and blames India for everything, some of those things, if you look at the reports, are absolutely ridiculous. You cannot, on the one hand, say I would now like to have good relations with you, but I get up every morning and blame you for everything that goes wrong. It is also a decision that they have to make, "Jaishankar stated in a public meeting on Saturday.

He stated that the challenges in bilateral relations have two key aspects, with the first being communal attacks on minorities.

"The spate of attacks on minorities in Bangladesh, obviously it, is something which impacts our thinking, and it is something we have to speak up about, which we have done. The second aspect is they have their politics, but at the end of the day, the two countries are neighbours," Jaishankar stated.

"They have to make up their minds on what kind of relationship they want to have with us, going ahead. We have a long history with Bangladesh. We have a very special history with Bangladesh. It goes back to 1971," Jaishankar further said.