External affairs minister S. Jaishankar recently conveyed to Touhid Hossain, the foreign affairs adviser to the interim government in Bangladesh, that Dhaka “should not normalise terrorism”, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during the weekly briefing on Friday.

This message, which can be construed as firm disapproval of the eastern neighbour’s growing bonhomie with Pakistan in recent months, from New Delhi to Dhaka was conveyed when Jaishankar met Hossain on the sidelines of the Indian Ocean Conference in Muscat on February 16.

“Yes, the matter was brought up by the Bangladesh side during the meeting. Everyone in South Asia is aware of which country and what activities are responsible for stymying Saarc. EAM conveyed that it is important that Bangladesh should not normalise terrorism,” said Jaiswal.

The Saarc has not been effective since the last biennial summit in Kathmandu in 2014. In 2016, the Saarc summit was to be held in Islamabad but India opted out after a terrorist attack on an army camp at Uri in Jammu and Kashmir, following which Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to participate inthe meet.

Though India has been stressing regional cooperation within the framework of the BIMSTEC, Bangladesh has brought Saarc back into the discourse after interim government chief Muhammad Yunus underlined the need to revive the “spirit of Saarc”.

Sources in the MEA said that the need to firmly state the country’s position was felt as Hossain told the Bangladeshi media, on his return to Dhaka, that he advocated the Saarc’s revival during his meeting with his Indian counterpart in Muscat.

“Yunus has met Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif twice in six months. Pakistani diplomats in Dhaka have become hyperactive, ISI teams are visiting the country, cultural exchanges have grown exponentially.... Cargo ships from Pakistan are arriving at the Chittagong port and commercial flights will resume soon,” said a source, referring to some recent developments that did not go down well with India.

On the sharp rise in anti-India rhetoric in Bangladesh, questions on the impact of such bitterness on bilateral relations also came up atthe briefing.

“Yes, we have taken note of such remarks which are, of course, not helpful. It is for the concerned individuals to reflect on implications for their particular domain,” said Jaiswal.