Pakistan has proposed a quadrilateral regional cooperation forum with Bangladesh, China and Myanmar, seeking to host an inaugural officials\u2019 meeting in Islamabad as early as mid-February. Dhaka has responded positively in principle but indicated the talks should wait until after the February 12 election, according to senior diplomatic sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The initiative follows several January contacts between Pakistan\u2019s deputy prime minister and foreign minister Ishaq Dar and Bangladesh\u2019s foreign affairs adviser Md. Touhid Hossain. Beyond the proposed four-way format, the two discussed bilateral steps\u2014including the resumption of direct Dhaka\u2013Karachi flights after a 14-year gap, possible direct cargo shipping on the Karachi\u2013Chattogram route, post-election high-level visits, expanded trade and investment, and defense-industrial items.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ahead of Myanmar foreign minister Than Swe\u2019s visit to Islamabad, Dar asked whether to raise the Rohingya issue; Hossain encouraged constructive engagement, officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Pakistani outreach comes after a Beijing-backed effort last year to launch a China\u2013Bangladesh\u2013Pakistan trilateral. Dhaka declined at the time, arguing any subregional platform would be more useful with a broader South Asian footprint (for example, by including Sri Lanka or Nepal). Pakistan renewed the push in January, first for a trilateral in Islamabad and then for a four-party meeting. Dhaka suggested starting at joint secretary level; Islamabad countered with additional-secretary rank. A tentative understanding emerged to meet in Islamabad at that level\u2014timing subject to Bangladesh\u2019s electoral calendar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former ambassador M Humayun Kabir cautioned that, amid intensifying great-power competition in the Bay of Bengal, it may be unwise for a caretaker administration to bind the next government to new regional constructs. He noted China\u2019s heightened activism and Pakistan\u2019s renewed diplomacy following Bangladesh\u2019s political changes in August 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If Bangladesh greenlights the concept post-election, Pakistan hopes to move quickly to convene the first session and define a working agenda spanning connectivity, trade logistics, and regional security concerns\u2014including the protracted Rohingya crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pakistan has proposed a quadrilateral regional cooperation forum with Bangladesh, China and Myanmar, seeking to host an inaugural officials\u2019 meeting in Islamabad as early as mid-February. Dhaka has responded positively in principle but indicated the talks should wait until after the February 12 election, according to senior diplomatic sources. The initiative follows several January contacts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7207"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7216,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7207\/revisions\/7216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}