The India-Bangladesh relationship can work if it meets the “test of mutual interest”, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday against the backdrop of Dhaka linking Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s possible visit to New Delhi to the extradition of former premier Sheikh Hasina.S Jaishankar responded to a question on the Tarique Rahman government’s demand for extraditing Sheikh Hasina by declining to go into the discussions between India and Bangladesh on this issue. (PTI)India does not expect its neighbours to only do what is in New Delhi’s interest, though bilateral relations work smoothly when the two sides find common ground, Jaishankar said while participating in a session at the Economic Times World Leaders Forum.Jaishankar responded to a question on the Tarique Rahman government’s demand for extraditing Hasina by declining to go into the discussions between India and Bangladesh on this issue. “What I can tell you is for any relationship to work, it has to meet the test of mutual interest. It has to work for them, it has to work for us,” he said. “I am also realistic, I’m not expecting neighbours to do only what’s in my interest. There has to be a fair degree, a reasonable degree of my recognising and respecting what is their interest, just as I expect them also to do so.”When the two sides find a “landing point” or “common ground”, the relationship works smoothly, Jaishankar said. “I would say this in respect of all neighbours, that [in] relationships, at the end of the day, there’s a mutuality which underpins that exercise,” he said.India has invited Rahman for both a bilateral visit and to attend the upcoming Brics Summit in his capacity as chair of the Bimstec grouping. Plans for a visit next week fell through at the last minute and the two sides are in touch to arrange it later this month or in early September, people familiar with the matter said. Rahman’s visit is perceived as crucial for resetting bilateral ties that have been hit by unprecedented strains, with Hasina’s presence in India acting as a key irritant.‘Pak unique in using terror against India’Jaishankar said the government cannot be impervious to public opinion regarding Pakistan, especially since the people see the neighbouring country as one that “does not empathise with us, does not understand our point of view” on terrorism.Asked about the upswing in Pakistan-US relations and its impact on India, he said: “The US and Pakistan have a long history. To a large extent, we have developed our own relationship with the US. But here’s the point — Pakistan is unique not because it’s a neighbour of India…It is unique because in this day and age, there is no other country which uses terrorism so systematically and in such a sustained manner to attack and pressure another neighbour.”Also Read I Assailants barge into shop, shoot man: How Hindu trader was killed in Pakistan's BalochistanJaishankar also downplayed the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement recently signed by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye, saying: “There are live military situations which each of the signatories face, what has the Makkah pact done in response to that?”But he argued that India will factor the agreement into its security calculus. “In my calculus, everything counts, everything will have a weight…and sometimes things need to play out,” he said. “Everything which happens on the part of any player who’s not well disposed towards me, of course counts in my calculation.‘Peace on border key to good ties with China’Jaishankar reiterated his long-held view that the state of the border will determine the course of the overall India-China relationship. The two countries are large economies, part of supply chains, markets for each other, and engaged in economic interaction, and both have an interest at the political and strategic level to maintain a stable relationship, he said.“I think we went through a particularly bad patch between the summer of 2020 and the autumn of 2024, and that was primarily an outcome of the situation in the border areas... at the end of the day, peace and tranquillity in the border areas is a prerequisite for good relations,” he said.Also Read I However you measure it, China’s job market is weakHe acknowledged reports of Indian businesspeople facing difficulties in obtaining Chinese visas and said the issue had been taken up with Beijing. “The world is competitive, we must build up our strengths, we have to do business with the entire world, that includes China too. But it is important we deal with them confidently, we stand our ground, as we have stood on the border, we develop our strengths which unfortunately…from the 1960s for half a century we did not do.”