Bimstec Summit 2025: PM Modi to meet Bangladesh’s Yunus in Bangkok after Dhaka’s request: Report

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Advisor to Bangladesh’s interim government Prof Muhammad Yunus will hold their first official bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Bimstec Summit in Bangkok, reported United News of Bangladesh (UNB) on Wednesday (April 2).

The media outlet cited officials in New Delhi and Dhaka and reported that the Bangladeshi side had requested for the meeting.

“I can tell you that the meeting will take place,” the outlet quoted a senior official in Dhaka as saying. It also received positive response from New Delhi. “It is expected that they’ll meet,” told a source from India.

Meanwhile, High Representative to the chief adviser Khalilur Rahman reportedly told media that they had requested for the meeting.

“We have requested for the meeting officially. We have reasonable grounds to remain hopeful. There is a high possibility to see the meeting,” he was quoted as saying by Dhaka Tribune.

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If it materialises, it would be the first official meeting between the two leaders after the interim government was installed in Dhaka in August last year following the ouster of deposed PM Sheikh Hasina.

Earlier, Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Md Jashim Uddin struck an optimistic tone and said the meeting will help the two nations overcome the strain in bilateral ties.

India-Bangladesh ties

The bilateral ties nosedived after Sheikh Hasina was forcibly removed from power, owing to massive student protests which saw hundreds being killed and jailed. As Muhammad Yunus took the reins in his hands, attacks on the country’s Hindu minority intensified, causing strains in India-Bangladesh relations. Dhaka also acknowledged the attacks but said they were politically-driven and had no religious angle.

As recent as March 1, 2025, the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council released a press statement that violence against religious and ethnic minorities and indigenous communities has continued. Between August 4 and December 31, 2024, there were 2,184 reported attacks targeting minorities.

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Now, the reports of a potential Modi-Yunus meeting come hot on the heels of the latter’s controversial visit to China, where he encouraged Beijing to expand its economic influence in Bangladesh, suggesting that the landlocked status of India’s northeastern states could present an opportunity.

Yunus, who met President Xi Jinping and signed nine agreements during the trip, said, “The seven states of India, the eastern part of India, are called the seven sisters. They are a landlocked region of India. They 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.