India named veteran politician Dinesh Trivedi as its next high commissioner to Bangladesh on Monday, in a ​rare appointment of a non–foreign service officer as New Delhi ‌seeks to reset ties with its eastern neighbour.

Ties between the countries soured after a popular uprising forced Bangladesh’s long‑serving prime minister Sheikh Hasina to ​flee to New Delhi in 2024, where she remains. ​Trivedi’s appointment highlights India’s push to rebuild trust with ⁠Bangladesh as it faces stiff competition from China for influence and ​business.

Trivedi, 75, a former railways and health minister, joined Prime Minister ​Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in 2021 from a regional party in West Bengal, a border state that plays a key role in India’s ties ​with Bangladesh and where Modi has been seeking to expand ​his party’s influence in ongoing local elections.

“He is expected to take up the assignment ‌shortly,” ⁠India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement about Trivedi.

Relations between the two countries began improving only after an election in February brought Tarique Rahman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party ​to power, replacing ​an interim government ⁠that had veered strongly towards China.

Bangladesh was part of India in the colonial era and became ​East Pakistan at the end of British rule ​in 1947. ⁠New Delhi intervened and helped Bangladesh become a separate country from Pakistan in 1971.

Bangladesh’s foreign minister visited Delhi this month seeking increased fuel and fertiliser supplies, closer ⁠energy ​cooperation and eased travel restrictions, but ​one of the biggest sticking points remains India’s refusal so far to extradite Hasina.