India cannot give any timeline for the return of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, as Dhaka’s extradition request is being examined through a structured legal process involving the courts, Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Dinesh Trivedi said on Saturday.Speaking at the Bay of Bengal Conversation 2026 in Dhaka, Trivedi said India had “hardly any choice” but to allow Hasina to land in India after she was ousted in August 2024, while making it clear that New Delhi’s relationship with Bangladesh was not contingent on Dhaka’s ties with any third country.“Again and again, the Government of India has replied that there is a process, and the process is legal, and it is well structured,” Trivedi said when asked about Bangladesh’s repeated demand for Hasina’s extradition.“The courts are involved. So, nobody can give you a time frame,” he said.On Hasina’s arrival in India following the collapse of her government, Trivedi said New Delhi had not planned her evacuation and that she was not brought to India by the Indian Air Force or the Army.“Hasina was not brought to India by the Indian Air Force or Army,” he said, adding that she arrived amid “tragic circumstances” in Bangladesh.“At that point, Hasina 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.Trivedi’s comments came as India and Bangladesh seek to manage a relationship strained since Hasina’s ouster, with New Delhi simultaneously seeking to maintain engagement with the government led by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman.In the broader bilateral relationship, the Indian envoy struck a conciliatory note, saying there was no point in hiding differences or avoiding difficult issues.“Every issue between the two neighbours has a solution,” he said, stressing the need for continuous dialogue on outstanding matters, including water, trade, culture, sports, communication and transportation.“There is no stoppage of the process. The process is ongoing,” Trivedi said, adding that solutions would have to emerge through dialogue and consultation, with trust as their foundation.He also sought to dispel any perception that India’s ties with Bangladesh would be shaped by Dhaka’s relations with other countries.“As far as we are concerned in India, the relationship doesn’t depend on what relation Bangladesh has with other countries,” he said, while acknowledging Bangladesh’s right as a sovereign country to protect its national interests.“Nobody should tell Bangladesh what they should do,” Trivedi said.At the same time, he emphasised that India, too, had the right to protect its own interests.The envoy described India-Bangladesh ties as going beyond a transactional relationship, pointing to the deep cultural and historical links between the two countries.“Can you imagine that one person, Rabindranath Tagore, has written the national anthem for both the countries?” he said, referring to Tagore’s composition of the national anthems of India and Bangladesh.He acknowledged that disagreements were inevitable between neighbouring democracies, likening them to “hiccups” within a family, but said such differences could not be resolved without sustained engagement.“In democracies, you are bound to have issues,” Trivedi said. “Issues can only and only be settled through dialogue, through consultation. And the basis of that dialogue is trust.”The remarks came at the fifth edition of the Bay of Bengal Conversation, organised by the Dhaka-based Centre for Governance Studies from October 3 to 5.The 2026 edition is themed “Fragments, Frontiers, Futures: Navigating Power, Technology & Trust in a World Rewritten” and brings together diplomats, political leaders, policymakers, academics and other participants from more than 100 countries.Trivedi, who was appointed India’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh in 2026, participated in a session titled “Power and Prudence: Managing Great-Power Competition without Conflict”.