Friday, 25 April 2025
Friday, 25 April 2025
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Bangladesh's Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus in Bangkok on Friday, their first meeting since the ouster of prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August last year.
The two leaders met on the sidelines of the Summit meeting of the leaders of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral and Technical Cooperation (BIMSTEC) grouping.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval were also present during the meeting.
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 urged Beijing to extend its economic influence to Bangladesh and had referred to India's northeastern region as “landlocked” and positioned itself as the "guardian of ocean access" for the region.
Jaishankar, on the first day of the sixth Bimstec summit in Bangkok, underscored the nation’s crucial strategic position in the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), highlighting the country’s extensive 6,500km coastline and its geographical ties with other member states of the regional bloc.
“We have the longest coastline in the Bay of Bengal, spanning nearly 6,500km. India shares borders with five BIMSTEC countries, connecting most of them, and also serves as a vital bridge between the Indian subcontinent and ASEAN nations,” Jaishankar said, stressing India’s central role in the region.
The minister further highlighted India’s northeastern states as key to enhancing connectivity within BIMSTEC, citing the growing network of roads, railways, waterways, and energy grids that are transforming the region into a connectivity hub.
Jaishankar’s remarks can be seen as a subtle response to Yunus’s assertion about Bangladesh’s strategic maritime role, emphasising India's unique position in facilitating trade, services, and people flow in the region.
Yunus, who leads a government that has often been critical of India, has complicated bilateral ties by seeking closer ties with China. Beyond positioning Bangladesh as the primary maritime gateway for the region, Yunus urged Beijing to extend its economic influence in Bangladesh, referring to the country as the "only guardian of the ocean."
While Jaishankar did not directly address Yunus’s comments, he reiterated the importance of India’s engagement with BIMSTEC, noting the country’s efforts to strengthen the grouping over the past decade. "We view cooperation through an integrated approach, not one that picks and chooses specific areas," he remarked, reinforcing India's commitment to regional cooperation.
