Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus in Bangkok on Friday on the sidelines of the summit meeting of the leaders of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral and Technical Cooperation (BIMSTEC) grouping.
This was the first meeting between the two leaders since the ouster of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August last year.
| PM Narendra Modi and Bangladesh Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus hold a meeting in Bangkok, Thailand — ANI (@ANI)
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval were also present during the meeting. In the visuals of the meeting that surfaced, PM Modi and Yunus were seen engaging in a firm handshake ahead of bilateral talks. They were also seen seated next to each other at the BIMSTEC leaders’ dinner on Thursday night.
The meeting comes amid the strained ties between India and Bangladesh after Yunus faced flak from New Delhi for asking China to extend its economic influence to Bangladesh, controversially mentioning that India’s northeastern states being landlocked could prove to be an opportunity.
The remark, apparently made during Yunus’ recent four-day visit to China, surfaced on social media. Yunus’s remarks added to the tensions between New Delhi and Dhaka, which developed close ties under Sheikh Hasina.
It is pertinent to mention that New Delhi has not paid attention to Dhaka’s recurring requests to extradite Hasina has added another layer of complications. Bangladesh is the incoming chair of the BIMSTEC grouping.
Since the interim government headed by Yunus stepped in following the ouster of Hasina in August 2024, the ties between India and Bangladesh have seen a slump amid Delhi’s concerns over the violence targeting Hindus and a rise of hardline Islamist forces there. During his visit to China last week, Yunus said the seven northeastern states of India are a landlocked region and have no way to reach out to the ocean.
Calling Bangladesh the “only guardian of the ocean” in the region, he said this could be a huge opportunity and could be an extension of the Chinese economy. The remarks didn’t go down well in India, and Bangladeshi officials have issued clarification on Yunus’ statement.
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