 "Modi meets Bangladesh’s Yunus | PM raises safety of minorities, MEA says received ‘a request’ on Hasina issue")
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Muhammad Yunus, the chief adviser to Bangladesh’s interim government on the sidelines of the Bimstec ((Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) Summit in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday. This was the first time PM Modi met Yunus following the toppling of Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024.
Briefing the media on the meeting, India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said PM Modi raised the issue of the safety of minorities in Bangladesh since Muhammad Yunus took reins of the government in Dhaka last year.
“The prime minister [Modi] underlined India’s concerns related to the safety and security of minorities in Bangladesh, including Hindus, and expressed his expectation that the Government of Bangladesh would ensure their security, including by thoroughly investigating the cases of atrocities committed against them,” the MEA said.
Bangladesh has been marred with turbulence as violent demonstrations spiralled out across the country. Not only this, but Hasina’s decision to take refuge in India has led to the deterioration of diplomatic ties between the two nations with Dhaka demanding her extradition to prosecute her for corruption.
Yunus’s spokesperson said that the Bangladesh chief adviser raised the issue of Hasina taking refuge in India. Commenting on the matter, Jaiswal said “talks did happen on this issue” without going into much details.
He said, “We got a request on this [Hasina] issue. It will not be right to say anything more on this.”
Bangladesh’s spokesperson said Yunus also raised the issue of Teesta water treaty, and clashes at the India-Bangladesh border in recent months that have at times caused deaths, according to CNN-News 18.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsTeesta is one of the rivers that India and Bangladesh share and an agreement over how to share the river’s water has been pending for more than a decade. One reason for the failure to reach an agreement is West Bengal Chief Minister’s Mamata Banerjee opposition to most of the proposals regarding the deal.
Earlier, Yunus’s office shared glimpses of his meeting with PM Modi in his official X handle. “Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus and Indian Prime Minister @narendramodi join a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of sixth BIMSTEC Summit in Bangkok, Thailand on Friday,” the office wrote in a statement.
During their meeting, Yunus presented to Modi a framed photograph of Modi presenting a gold medal to Yunus at the 102 Indian Science Congress in 2015.
Profsssor Muhammad Yunus is presenting a photo to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their bilateral meeting in Bangkok on Friday. The photo is about Prime Minister Narendra Modi presenting a gold medal to Professor Yunus at the 102nd Indian Science Congress on January 3, 2015 pic.twitter.com/lsikvMOWT4
— Chief Adviser of the Government of Bangladesh (@ChiefAdviserGoB) April 4, 2025
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is expected to hold a press conference later in the day in which officials are expected to get into the details of the two leaders’ discussions.
The meeting amid turbulent times
A night before the two leaders held talks, they were seated next to each other during the BIMSTEC leaders’ dinner Thursday night. Interestingly, the meeting came days after Yunus made a controversial statement that Northeast India is “landlocked” and Dhaka is the “only guardian of the ocean for all this region”. The remarks garnered criticisms from India, especially from the Indian foreign minister Dr S. Jaishankar.
While addressing the 20th BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok, Jaishankar said, “Our Northeast region in particular is emerging as a connectivity hub for the BIMSTEC, with a myriad network of roads, railways, waterways, grids and pipelines. The completion of the Trilateral Highway will connect India’s Northeast to the Pacific Ocean, a veritable game-changer.”
“We are conscious that our cooperation and facilitation are an essential prerequisite for the smooth flow of goods, services and people in this larger geography," he furthered, insisting that, “keeping this geo-strategic factor in mind, we have devoted increasing energies and attention to the strengthening of BIMSTEC in the last decade. We also believe that cooperation is an integrated outlook, not one subject to cherry-picking.”
For weeks Bangladesh has been insisting for bilateral talks between Modi and Yunus during the summit, with requests for the same being sent to New Delhi. However, New Delhi kept the meeting under wraps, until today.
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