Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Dinesh Trivedi today said India had “hardly any choice” but to allow the aircraft carrying Sheikh Hasina to land in the country in August 2024, while saying the legal process concerning her return to Bangladesh is under way. “There is a process, and the process involves legality. And it is very structured,” Trivedi said when asked about Hasina’s repatriation. “As far as that is concerned, the process is on. And the courts are involved. So nobody can give you a time frame.” He was speaking at a panel discussion titled “Power and Prudence” at the Bay of Bengal Conversation 2026, being held at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon in Dhaka. The three-day conference, organised by the Centre for Governance Studies, began today. Explaining the circumstances under which Hasina landed in India following the fall of her government in August 2024, Trivedi said India had neither brought her there nor been prepared for her arrival. “Hasina Ji was not brought to India by Indian Air Force or Indian Army,” he said. He said the military aircraft carrying her arrived in India amid what he described as “tragic circumstances” in Bangladesh. “At that point in time, Hasina Ji was still the prime minister of Bangladesh. We had hardly any choice on that. It was our duty as a neighbour to accept the reality of life,” he said. Bangladesh has formally sought Hasina’s extradition from India. New Delhi has previously said the request is being examined through established legal and judicial procedures and has not announced a final decision. Trivedi also stressed the broader relationship between the two countries, saying it extended beyond transactional interests. “The Bangladesh-India relationship is more than transactional, it is cultural. A good neighbour always comes out in support of each other,” he said. On regional security, he said Bangladesh was an independent and sovereign country capable of assessing its own security interests. He said India had “full confidence” in the people of Bangladesh and in the trust underpinning relations between the two countries. “That’s where the trust and faith between two nations and that bond makes India and Bangladesh a very, very special relationship,” he said. Speaking at the same session, Major General (retd) ANM Muniruzzaman, president of the Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies, described Bangladesh as an “aspiring middle power” amid growing geopolitical competition. “In an increasingly fragmented world full of geopolitical contestation, Bangladesh as an aspiring middle power plays the role of a stabiliser,” he said. “Bangladesh is a connector nation providing a critical link between South and Southeast Asia.” Mustafa Osman Turan, foreign relations adviser to the mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, said strategic autonomy meant having the ability to make one’s own decisions in pursuit of strategic interests. The discussion focused on strategic autonomy, regional security and emerging geopolitical complexities in the region.