• Trade follows the mutilation of Bangladesh’s long -standing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
• India’s relationship with Bangladesh’s new government’s frosted since then.
• The first container ship sailed from Karachi to Chittagong in November 2024.
  

Pakistan and Bangladesh have begun direct government-to-government trade after decades of troubled relations with the import of 50,000 tonnes of rice, Dhaka said Tuesday.

The latest developments come months after the long-standing Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was exposed in an August 2024 revolution, fled from helicopter to her old Ally India, where she has defied extradition requests of being exposed to charges of crimes against humanity.

The relationship between India and Bangladesh’s new government has been frosty since then, so Islamabad and Dhaka can slowly rebuild ties.

Direct private trade between the countries restarted in November 2024 when a container ship sailed from Karachi to Bangladesh’s Chittagong.

It was the first loading ship in decades to sail directly between the countries.

“For the first time, we import 50,000 tonnes of rice from Pakistan, and that’s the first government-to-government agreement between the two countries,” said Ziauddin Ahmed, an official of the Dhaka Senior Food Ministry in Dhaka, on Tuesday.

Bangladesh’s Directorate -General for Mad signed a contract morandum with Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) in January for Risimport.

Ahmed said that trade in Pakistan offers a “new Avenue for Sourcing and Competitive Prices”, in which state authorities in recent years import the staples from India, Thailand and Vietnam.

Imports are critical of low-lying Bangladesh, a nation that is among the world’s most vulnerable to climate change, with large areas consisting of Deltas, where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers wind against the sea.

The 170 million country is especially in danger of devastating floods and cyclones – disasters that only accelerate when the planet stops warming.

Private Bangladeshi companies have imported Pakistani rice for years, but Pakistani Goods had to be turned off on feeder ships-normally in Sri Lanka, Malaysia or Singapore-Feature they traveled on.