Tarique Rahman was sworn in as prime minister of Bangladesh on Tuesday following a landslide victory by his Bangladesh Nationalist Get together in elections final week. The vote was the primary to be held since an enormous youth-led rebellion in the summertime of 2024 that ousted then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and ended her more and more authoritarian regime. A yr and a half later, voters overwhelmingly solid their ballots for Rahman and the BNP, handing it 212 of the 350 seats obtainable within the nation’s unicameral legislature—and with it, a comparatively free hand to find out the nation’s coverage trajectory.
Rahman is the son of Ziaur Rahman—a hero of the nation’s independence wrestle who based the BNP and served as Bangladesh’s president from 1977 till his assassination in 1981—and the late Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. Fittingly, the youthful Rahman has pledged to implement a brand new overseas coverage that stands in direct distinction with that of Hasina, his mom’s archnemesis. Whereas Hasina strongly favored India over different worldwide companions, Rahman goals to construct heat ties with different international locations within the area, together with Pakistan and China. In his phrases, it’s a platform underneath which the “curiosity of the Bangladeshi individuals comes first.”
One of many quick challenges going through the brand new BNP authorities might be negotiating with India on Hasina, who’s presently dwelling in exile in New Delhi, having fled throughout the 2024 protests. In November 2025, a world tribunal sentenced Hasina to demise in absentia for crimes in opposition to humanity in connection along with her function overseeing a brutal crackdown on demonstrators that left as many as 1,400 individuals lifeless.
