It was a historic meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus in Bangkok on Friday. In the first ‘under-one-roof’ meeting, the two leaders met for nearly half an hour, according to reports. The two leaders met on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral and Technical Cooperation) Summit meeting of the leaders.
PTI has reported that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval were also present during the meeting.
The relations between the two countries have been deteriorating since the ouster of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024. New Delhi has been raising concerns over the violence targeting Hindus and the rise of hardline Islamist forces in Bangladesh. Furthermore, just last month, Yunus irked India by saying that the seven northeast Indian states are a landlocked region and have no way to reach the the ocean, and that Bangladesh the “only guardian of the ocean” in the region.
These comments were made during his visit to China last week, when Yunus urged Beijing to extend its economic influence to Bangladesh, controversially mentioning that India’s northeastern states being landlocked could prove to be an opportunity. He added that this could be an extension of the Chinese economy. New Delhi has slammed the remarks and Bangladesh officials have issued since then issued a clarification on Yunus’ statement.
