India to resume tourist visas for Bangladeshi citizens from June 28

India is set to resume issuing tourist visas in Bangladesh on June 28, according to an announcement made Thursday (June 25) by Dinesh Trivedi, India's new High Commissioner to Dhaka. The decision marks a significant step forward nearly two years after bilateral relations deteriorated following the overthrow of New Delhi's ally, Sheikh Hasina. Trivedi expressed hope that reviving tourist travel would help further strengthen the people-to-people connections between the two sovereign nations.

Diplomatic ties between the neighbours became severely strained following the August 2024 uprising. Since fleeing the revolt, Hasina has remained in hiding in India, while authorities in Dhaka have repeatedly demanded her extradition following her death sentence in absentia. However, relationship dynamics began to improve after Prime Minister Tarique Rahman achieved a landslide election victory, succeeding the interim administration that had governed the nation of 170 million people since Hasina's ousting. Following this political shift, India initially resumed visa services exclusively for medical purposes before extending them to tourists.

The two nations share deep cultural and historical ties alongside a vast 4,096-kilometre (2,545-mile) land border. Despite these close connections, the relationship remains complex and delicate, compounded by ongoing friction over border issues, particularly India's practice of sending individuals it accuses of being illegal migrants back across the frontier into Bangladesh.