Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Bangladesh’s chief adviser Muhammad Yunus in Thailand , their first interaction since Sheikh Hasina's ouster last August. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC summit, reportedly at Dhaka’s request.
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00:00The Prime Minister's meeting with Muhammad Yunus has begun is what we know at this point
00:05in time.
00:06This comes amid tensions between both the countries in fact growing tensions so to speak
00:11as far as the latest from Bangladesh vis a vis the comments made by Muhammad Yunus is
00:17concerned on the north eastern part of the country which Bangladesh has clarified as
00:21something that was misread or misunderstood.
00:26Pictures are of Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting with Muhammad Yunus is what we can
00:32tell our viewers.
00:33These are pictures just coming in.
00:36The Prime Minister just before in fact leaving for Bangkok had spoken about the fact that
00:43he would be meeting the leaders of the BIMSTEC countries to discuss ways for strengthening
00:48collaboration and keeping the interest of people in mind.
00:52Expect it to be more generic than anything else.
00:55I'm going to go across to my colleague from India Today Global Shashank Mattu for more
01:01on that as well.
01:02Shashank take us through at least what you're picking up vis a vis your sources on what
01:07are the issues that India is expected to raise at this meeting.
01:11Understood.
01:12I think that the Indian side is going to raise a number of questions some of which have been
01:16part of its foreign policy for the last couple of months.
01:19First is, of course, the attacks on minorities in Bangladesh is something that India has
01:24raised with a great deal of concern and India would want some assurances to understand what
01:29the government of Muhammad Yunus is doing to make sure that there is a law and order.
01:33I think India will also look to understand what Muhammad Yunus's plans are for Bangladesh.
01:37Yunus has said very clearly that he wants to hold elections soon so that a new government
01:43can come in.
01:44Remember, this is just an interim government that is in power right now.
01:46India would want to understand his plans for that.
01:49India would also want to understand and raise its concerns about Bangladesh's overtures
01:52to Pakistan and China, which it has been making with increasing frequency.
01:56Remember, Yunus is just coming out of a meeting in China.
02:00You mentioned those comments that he made about India's northeastern states about, you
02:03know, working more closely with China.
02:05Those were comments made in China.
02:07And of course, that has raised a lot of concern within India.
02:10On the Bangladesh side, what we know very clearly is that Bangladesh has requested this
02:13meeting.
02:14It was the Bangladeshi side that requested this meeting.
02:16And they are seeing this as a way to reduce tensions between India and Bangladesh.
02:20That is their big takeaway from this.
02:22They want to convey their concerns regarding some questions like border security, which
02:26have caused tensions in the past couple of months.
02:28India will raise its concerns.
02:29Both sides will put their cards on the table and frankly, basically understand why there
02:34have been such tensions in the bilateral relationship and hopefully come to some sort of resolution
02:38that allows for a stable relationship as the months and years go on.
02:42You know, Shashank, I also want to ask you, tell us a little about how India is looking
02:46at the statement of Dhaka, saying that the comments regarding northeastern part of the
02:51country which were recently made and stirred up such a storm were misunderstood, were misread
02:56is what Dhaka said.
02:57How does India look at it?
02:59Well, we can infer a lot from the fact that the Indian government did not, of course,
03:02formally put out a statement on this particular issue.
03:05It has maintained a policy of patience with the government of Muhammad Yunus and that
03:09is what we're seeing, that the government continues to maintain its policy of patience.
03:12But of course, the sense we're also getting is that the government cannot have been too
03:16pleased by the fact that this was a statement that was being made in China while Muhammad
03:20Yunus was there.
03:21India has concerns about Bangladesh's relationship with China and of course, trying to say, therefore,
03:26that India's northeast as well as Bangladesh should work for a closer economic connectivity
03:31corridor with the Chinese when India has its concerns about Chinese activities in the northeast.
03:36Also, its activities in South Asia more generally was definitely seen as it was something that
03:41raised definitely a lot of eyebrows.
03:44So definitely, I think that it highlighted really the problem that we've been having
03:48with the Yunus administration, which is that for the last 15 years, while Sheikh Haseena
03:51was in power, there was a very, very pro-India policy broadly followed by the Bangladesh
03:55government.
03:56Now, the driving impulse of Muhammad Yunus's government is that we want to reduce our dependence
04:02on India.
04:03We want to work more closely with China, Pakistan and other regional countries.
04:06That's very much the focus of the Yunus administration.
04:08It's a big adjustment for India to make.
04:09It's a big adjustment for Bangladesh to make as well.
04:11And it has caused that strategic distrust to creep back into the relationship, which
04:15will now need to be addressed in this meeting between Prime Minister Modi and Muhammad Yunus.