DHAKA — Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has received invitations for his first foreign trip from China, India, Pakistan and Gulf countries, with China prioritized as the most likely destination. Three months into his premiership, Rahman has not yet left Bangladesh on an official foreign visit.

Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman confirmed that China was being prioritized as the most likely destination for the prime minister's first foreign trip. Reports indicate Beijing is seeking to host Tarique Rahman in late June.

Beijing's ambassador to Bangladesh hand-delivered a personal invitation from Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang to the prime minister. After Tarique Rahman took office, Bangladesh Nationalist Party delegations visited Beijing, and the foreign minister visited the Chinese capital in early May and issued a joint statement with Chinese counterparts.

Bangladesh has formally sought Chinese funding and technical support for the Teesta River Comprehensive Management and Restoration Project, a billion-dollar scheme to dredge and rehabilitate over a hundred kilometers of a river that millions of northern Bangladeshis depend on. Dhaka is also in discussions with Beijing to connect Bangladesh to a China-Myanmar-Bangladesh road corridor stretching to Kunming. China is pushing the prime minister to endorse Xi Jinping's Global Development Initiative and Global Security Initiative.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent a personal letter through Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on the day of Tarique Rahman's swearing-in, inviting the prime minister and his family to New Delhi. Bangladesh's foreign minister visited New Delhi in April, met External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, and described the atmosphere as one of convergence. He returned from New Delhi publicly optimistic that a Modi-Rahman summit would happen, though dates had not been fixed.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif congratulated Tarique Rahman by phone after his swearing-in, and Islamabad sent a senior minister to the ceremony before extending a formal invitation for a state visit. Direct flights between Bangladesh and Pakistan have resumed since the end of Sheikh Hasina's tenure, and the two countries are conducting military exchanges. Bangladeshi bureaucrats are, for the first time since 1971, undergoing training at Pakistan's Civil Services Academy in Lahore.

The United States travel restrictions that came into force on January 1, 2026 have placed Bangladesh under a visa bond regime, requiring Bangladeshi nationals to meet additional financial requirements and undergo enhanced scrutiny when seeking entry to the U.S. Tarique Rahman faces an unresolved FBI-related travel restriction that complicates any visit to Washington.