Foreign Minister Dr Khalilur Rahman said Bangladesh will never again become a “client state” and that the government’s foreign-policy principle is “Bangladesh First.” He made the remarks on August 5, 2026, as chief guest at a July Mass Uprising Day event at the Foreign Service Academy in the capital. He also recalled Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s remarks at the opening of the July Memorial Museum earlier that morning.

Rahman said the success of the July movement had placed a historic responsibility on the nation to protect sovereignty and pursue an independent foreign policy based on national interests. He said Turkey’s foreign minister recently told him that Bangladesh, once seen as fading in the international arena, had returned strongly. Rahman described the comment as reflecting Bangladesh’s renewed standing internationally.

Paying tribute to those killed in the July-August 2024 mass uprising, he said they gave their lives in the struggle for democracy, justice and human rights, and expressed sympathy for those permanently injured. He called the nationwide internet shutdown during the 2024 events one of Bangladesh’s darkest chapters. He said he contacted the UN secretary-general’s office on August 5 to draw international attention to serious human-rights violations in Bangladesh.