R&AW Chief Meets Bangladesh Defence Adviser Amid Diplomatic Reset

Amidst the high-profile meeting between India's High Commissioner to Bangladesh and Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman in Dhaka on Monday morning, another significant meeting has taken place between the Head of India's Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) Parag Jain and Rahman's Defence Affairs Adviser Brig Gen (Retd) Dr AKM Shamsul Islam in Dhaka today.India has not made any official statement on the meeting. The meeting assumes significance amidst ongoing efforts to normalise the India-Bangladesh relationship through a reset, and several meetings have taken place at the top levels between the two countries. Jain and his team are in Bangladesh at the invite of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI).DGFI is the premier military intelligence agency of Bangladesh. Headquartered in the Dhaka Cantonment, it is responsible for national security, strategic intelligence collection, and counter-terrorism operations in the country. R&AW is the primary foreign intelligence agency tasked with gathering external intelligence; it handles counter-terrorism and reports directly to the Prime Minister of India.Jain is also secretary of India's Special Protection Group (SPG), and he was accompanied by a four-member delegation, according to sources in Dhaka. He was in China before his visit to Bangladesh. It is a common practice between representatives of two countries' intelligence agencies to meet each other, and such meetings have happened in the past too, but there is a lot of speculation about the reason for the visit at this point in time. Sources on both sides said the visit was 'routine'. Jain is a senior police officer and was appointed as chief of R&AW in July 2025. He is a 1989-batch IPS officer from the Punjab cadre. Sources have told NDTV regional bilateral cooperation and security dynamics were discussed during the visit.