India has said that it wants to build and strengthen relations with Bangladesh and the new government, led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which assumed office on Tuesday.

In a first step towards resetting the bilateral ties, the Bangladesh High  Commission in Delhi on Friday resumed visa services for Indian citizens, two months after the facilities were suspended, according to Indian media reports.

According to a video clip of Friday’s press briefing shared on X by Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, prime minister Narendra Modi congratulated Bangladesh’s new prime minister Tarique Rahman soon after his election victory.

Responding to a question from a journalist, Jaiswal said that Om Birla attended the swearing-in ceremony of the new government (of Bangladesh) and handed over a letter from Modi to Tarique Rahman.

Jaiswal said that the letter underlined India’s commitment to support a democratic, progressive, and inclusive Bangladesh.

‘Building on the warm and historic ties between the two countries, India looks forward to further strengthening our multifaceted bilateral ties with Bangladesh,’ he said.

During the briefing, Jaiswal also spoke about the visa operations between the two countries. He said that these issues would be discussed step by step between New Delhi and the Bangladesh government.

According to a report by India Today, the Bangladesh High Commission in Delhi resumed visa services for Indian citizens two months after they were suspended.

The report said that the move came three days after Tarique Rahman took charge as prime minister and signalled an early effort to remove irritants in bilateral ties.

It also said that a senior Indian consular official indicated that New Delhi would soon restore all visa services in Bangladesh.

Both countries suspended visa and consular services in December as bilateral relations sharply deteriorated following the killing of Sharif Osman Hadi, convener of the Inquilab Mancha.

Diplomatic relations between Dhaka and New Delhi became strained after the ouster of the Awami League-led government on August 5, 2024 amid a student-led mass uprising.

Tensions escalated further in December over the death of Sharif Osman Hadi, who was undergoing treatment in Singapore. After the news of his death broke on the night of December 18, 2025, attacks were carried out on two newspaper offices and the Chhayanaut building in Dhaka.

In the same night, a group of people staged a protest in front of the Indian Assistant High Commission in Chattogram and threw stones at the mission.

Subsequently, the Indian Visa Application Centre in Chattogram suspended its activities from December 21 until further notice.

The following day, Bangladesh announced the suspension of visa and consular services from its missions in Delhi and Agartala.

After the BNP’s landslide victory in the 13th Jatiya Sangsad elections, relations between the two countries began to thaw.

On the morning of February 13, before the full results were announced, Narendra Modi congratulated Tarique Rahman in a statement. Later in the afternoon, he spoke with him over phone and expressed support for his work.

Dhaka invited Modi to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the new government. However, India’s Ministry of External Affairs informed that he would not be able to attend due to the AI Impact Summit. Instead, Om Birla represented India at the ceremony.

Following the BNP-led government’s assumption of office, visa operations between the two countries gained momentum. The Bangladesh High Commission in Delhi has begun issuing visas to Indian nationals since Friday.

Speaking to journalists earlier, Indian Assistant High Commissioner in Sylhet Aniruddha Das on Wednesday said that all categories of Indian visas would soon return to ‘normal levels.’