Abstract
This paper seeks to discuss Bangladesh-India relations from a strategic perspective with special focus on
the 1972 Bangladesh-India Friendship treaty. It delves into the origins of the alliance between the two
countries and their motivations for signing it. It looks at how the treaty has fared in practice and why
subsequent regimes did not abrogate it. This author believes that the treaty resulted from the circumstances
of Bangladesh’s independence war and the role that India played in it. The Cold War and the global
alliance system also had a role. Now that the Cold War is over and Bangladesh is no longer a newly
emergent nation, is there any need for the continuation of the treaty?