Bangladesh, Sept. 12 -- Bangladesh's foreign policy establishment has had quite the week. After spending a good part of a month talking up Dhaka's desire to join the Makkah Defence Alliance, the whole thing has come crashing down. The word from Islamabad was clear: the alliance is not looking to invite anyone at this point.

This came on the heels of an official statement in Dhaka that Prime Minister Tarique Rahman would skip the BRICS summit being held in Delhi. He was invited to the BRICS Outreach programme as the current chair of the regional grouping BIMSTEC -- Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation.

One humiliation, followed by self-inflicted harm.

Right next door to Bangladesh, some of the ...