Formal Yunus-Modi meet unlikely at BIMSTEC Summit

Bangladesh interim government Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are unlikely to hold any bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC Summit in April despite a request from Dhaka.

Modi and Yunus will likely cross paths at next month’s BIMSTEC Summit in Thailand, but a formal meeting on the margins of the event is unlikely, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday, reports Hindustan Times.

The two leaders are set to attend the summit of the regional grouping being held in Bangkok on 3-4 April.

Bangladesh Foreign Affairs Adviser Touhid Hossain confirmed on Thursday that Dhaka has made a formal request for a meeting on the margins of the summit. This will be the first time that Yunus and Modi will be attending the same multilateral event.

The current state of the bilateral relationship is not conducive to a meeting between the top leadership of the two countries, three people familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.

The grounds have not been prepared for such a meeting, especially given the friction and acrimony in ties, they added.

“An encounter or exchange of pleasantries cannot be ruled out as all the leaders attending the summit will be in each other’s company on several occasions, but nothing more is expected,” one of the people said.

“A formal meeting looks difficult, especially when there is a fresh barrage against India from some member[s] of the interim government in Dhaka almost on a daily basis. These conditions are not conducive to a meeting,” a second person said.

On Thursday, Touhid told ANI, “We have made a diplomatic approach to India to hold a bilateral meeting between our two leaders at the sidelines of the Bimstec Summit.”

The summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), which groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, is being held in Bangkok at a time when ties between New Delhi and Dhaka are at an all-time low.

India recently reiterated its concerns about the interim government’s handling of attacks on Bangladesh’s Hindus and other minorities, the deteriorating law and order situation and release of violent extremists from jail.

Bangladesh has its concerns about the presence in India of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, for whom it has submitted an extradition request, and differences on a range of issues such as the sharing of waters of cross-border rivers and fencing of the international border.

Another issue that has not gone down well in diplomatic and security circles in New Delhi is the Bangladesh military’s increasing engagement with Pakistan’s armed forces, including the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Senior ISI officials were part of a Pakistani military delegation that recently visited Bangladesh.

Last September, the Bangladeshi side sought a meeting between Yunus and Modi on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York.

India has not yet responded to Bangladesh’s request to extradite Hasina, who has been named in a raft of criminal cases in her country for charges ranging from extrajudicial killings to enforced disappearances and crimes against humanity.

Hasina fled to India after stepping down on 5 August last year and India’s leadership has said she was granted approval to come to the country at short notice.

She has been largely incommunicado while in India, and is understood to be currently living in a safe house in New Delhi. Hasina’s online speeches to activists of her party, Awami League, have also angered Yunus and other leaders of the interim government.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met Touhid Hossain on the margins of the Indian Ocean Conference in Oman on 16 February and discussed bilateral ties and cooperation within the BIMSTEC format.

This meeting was the first high-level contact between the two countries since Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri travelled to Dhaka last December for the annual foreign office consultations.