High possibility of Yunus-Modi meet during Bimstec summit: B'desh official

There is a "high possibility" of a meeting between Bangladesh Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the Bimstec Summit in Bangkok, a senior official said here on Wednesday.

Modi will travel to Thailand on Thursday on a two-day visit, during which he will attend the 6th Bimstec Summit (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) and hold talks with his Thai counterpart Paetongtarn Shinawatra. 

Khalilur Rahman, the High Representative to the Chief Adviser for the Rohingya issue and other priorities, was quoted by the Dhaka Tribune newspaper as saying that Bangladesh has requested a meeting between the two leaders and "we have reasonable grounds to remain hopeful".

He told reporters that there is a "high possibility" of the meeting, the paper added.

The state-run BSS news agency also quoted an unnamed source as saying that talks between the two leaders will be held during the summit.

In New Delhi, sources did not rule out a meeting.

Since the interim government headed by Yunus stepped in following the ouster of the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024, the ties between the two countries have seen a slump amid India's concerns over the violence targeting Hindus and a rise of hardline Islamist forces there.

During his visit to China last week, Yunus urged Beijing to extend its economic influence to Bangladesh, controversially mentioning that India's northeastern states being landlocked could prove to be an opportunity.

Yunus, who met Chinese President Xi Jinping and signed nine agreements with Beijing 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 as 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. 

The remark surfaced on social media on Monday.

His comments drew sharp reactions from political leaders across party lines in India, who dubbed his remarks as "shameful" and "provocative".

Rahman said that the chief adviser's comment on the northeastern states of India was misinterpreted.

"He made the statement with honest intentions. If people interpret it differently, we cannot prevent it," he said in response to a question at a media briefing in Dhaka.

Prime Minister Modi will join the Bimstec leaders from Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar and Bhutan on Thursday to oversee the signing of the Agreement on Maritime Cooperation.

This would be the first physical meeting of the Bimstec leaders since the 4th Bimstec Summit in Kathmandu, Nepal in 2018. The last summit was held in Colombo in March 2022 in a virtual format.