Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Nepali counterpart K.P. Sharma Oli and Chief Adviser of Bangladesh Muhammad Yunus dinner the official dinner at the BIMSTEC Summit, in Bangkok, Thailand.
Credit: @ChiefAdviserGoB via PTI Photo
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the chief advisor of the interim government of Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus, sat side by side at a dinner in Bangkok on Thursday, amid speculation about the two leaders holding a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC summit, which would be held at the capital of Thailand on Friday.
Modi was flanked by Yunus and Nepalese Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli at the dinner hosted by Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra of Thailand.
The Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) quoted Yunus’ press secretary, Shafiqul Alam, to report that the chief advisor of the interim government in Dhaka and the prime minister of India “exchanged greetings” during the meeting.
New Delhi, however, refrained from confirming if the prime minister would hold a bilateral meeting with his de facto counterpart from Dhaka on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC summit and before leaving Bangkok for Colombo on Friday.
Yunus’s interim government in Dhaka had, a couple of weeks back, sent a formal request to New Delhi for a bilateral meeting with Modi in Bangkok.
Yunus took over as the chief advisor of the interim government in Dhaka on August 8, 2024, three days after Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government collapsed in the wake of a mass protest across Bangladesh over police crackdown on students and youths agitating against reservation in government recruitment.
Sheikh Hasina has been living in India ever since she flew onboard a military aircraft from Dhaka to the Indian Air Force base at Hindon near New Delhi on August 5, 2024.
India’s protest against the persecution of Hindus and other minority communities in Bangladesh after the change of government in the neighbouring nation, India’s silence over the request by the interim government of Bangladesh for extradition of Sheikh Hasina or its protest against her virtual addresses delivered from India on recent developments in Bangladesh, including the vandalism and demolition of the historic residence of her father and the founder of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, emerged as irritants in the bilateral relations.
Yunus’s bid to steer Bangladesh into the orbit of China’s geopolitical influence also contributed to the tension between Dhaka and New Delhi over the past few months.