Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Bangladesh chief advisor Muhammad Yunus on the sidelines of the sixth BIMSTEC Summit in Thailand’s Bangkok on Friday.
The bilateral meeting comes after Dhaka had requested a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC Summit to sort out differences, but PM Modi’s schedule in Thailand did not mention the requested meeting.
Rising Tensions Between India and Bangladesh
The two nations saw tensions in ties due to differences over the alleged instances of violence targeting Hindu minorities in Bangladesh and India’s decision to grant asylum to Sheikh Hasina.
Controversial Comments on Northeast India
Tensions in bilateral ties also escalated after Yunus’s comment on India’s northeastern states during his visit to the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) annual conference in China.
Speculations Ahead of the Meeting between PM Modi and Yunus
Earlier, a PTI report suggested that PM Modi would likely meet Yunus. On Thursday, the prime minister and Yunus were seated together at a dinner hosted on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC Summit.
First High-Level Engagement Since Hasina’s Exile
The talks also mark the first highest level of engagement with the interim government after former prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India and sought asylum in August last year. The former prime minister fled Bangladesh following a massive student-led protest that toppled her Awami League’s 16-year regime.
Extradition Request and India’s Silence
Yunus has claimed that Dhaka sent “formal letters” to India seeking Hasina’s extradition to face a legal trial but received no official response from New Delhi.
Narendra Modi Reaffirms Commitment to Bangladesh
In a letter to Yunus last month, PM Modi said, “India remains committed to advancing its partnership with Bangladesh, driven by the common aspirations for peace, stability, and prosperity, and based on mutual sensitivity to each other’s interests and concerns.”
The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is a regional organization of seven South Asian and Southeast Asian nations with a total population of 1.73 billion people and a combined GDP of US$5.2 trillion. Thailand is the current chairman of the grouping. The current summit was the first physical meeting of the leaders since the 4th BIMSTEC Summit in Kathmandu, Nepal, in 2018.
