Bangladesh Trade Route Turbulence: India Tightens Gateways After Yunus’ ‘Landlocked’ Remark

New Delhi: In a choice that follows pointed remarks by means of Bangladesh’s meantime Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, India has tightened get right of entry to for Bangladeshi items via its northeastern land ports.

Speaking all through a discuss with to China, Yunus referred to India’s northeast as a “landlocked region with no access to the ocean” – a word that Indian officers didn’t take evenly.

The fallout?

Bangladesh’s thriving ready-made garment (RMG) exports – in conjunction with plastics, furnishings, melamine, juices, processed meals and extra – now face rerouted trips by the use of Kolkata or the Nhava Sheva port in Maharashtra. That shift approach longer journeys, upper prices and tighter margins for Bangladeshi exporters. 

BIG BREAKING:

India limits Bangladesh garment imports to Kolkata, Mumbai seaports; Land ports closed in a reciprocal gesture to Bangladesh

India’s Northeastern land ports barred for make a selection Bangladeshi items. pic.twitter.com/aGdCvK1I4C
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) May 17, 2025

Until now, 93% of Bangladeshi exports to India flowed via northeastern gateways in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram and thru Fulbari and Changrabandha in West Bengal. The re-routing is poised to hit Bangladesh’s RMG sector the toughest, which yearly exports over USD 740 million value of clothes to India.

India has framed the transfer as one in all business equity, bringing up long-standing asymmetries. “Bangladesh cannot assume market access without reciprocity. For years, India extended concessions without equal returns. This decision restores balance,” an legitimate informed ANI.

There is extra to it than political optics. Indian exporters have many times flagged Bangladesh’s restrictions on Indian items, in particular throughout the Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) bordering the northeastern states.

In addition, Bangladesh’s transit fees – 1.8 taka in step with tonne in step with kilometre for Indian items in comparison to 0.8 taka locally – had been considered in New Delhi as discriminatory.

Officials argue that those fees have stifled business enlargement within the northeast, successfully blocking off financial integration with the Indian heartland. “Industrial growth in the Northeastern states suffers a triple jeopardy,” a supply famous, pointing to each logistical and coverage hurdles imposed by means of Dhaka.

For Bangladesh, the rapid have an effect on is financial. Rising shipping prices and restricted get right of entry to to key Indian markets threaten to disrupt its export-led enlargement style. But for Indian producers, the business pivot would possibly be offering recent alternatives to fill the availability vacuum.

A diplomatic standoff, a redirected truck course and a reminder – in geopolitics, phrases raise weight, particularly once they redraw business maps.

(With ANI inputs)