Avoid rhetoric that undermines constructive relations, urges PM Modi during talks with Bangladesh’s Yunus
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh’s chief adviser Muhammad Yunus held talks on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC regional summit in Bangkok on Friday (April 4, 2025) in their first meeting since regime change in Dhaka, sidestepping tensions of the past eight months.
While the two leaders raised contentious issues during the meeting, which lasted about 40 minutes – including India’s call to protect minorities in Bangladesh, Dhaka’s demand for the extradition of former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and border security issues – they met on cordial terms and exchanged pledges for bilateral ties. Bangladesh will host the next BIMSTEC summit next year and Mr. Modi congratulated Mr. Yunus for taking over its chairmanship.
The Modi-Yunus meeting on Friday (April 4, 2025) came just after the conclusion of the sixth summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, or BIMSTEC, a grouping of seven countries that connects South Asia and Southeast Asia.
Meeting the neighbors
Mr Modi also met Myanmar’s junta chief and Prime Minister General Min Aung Hlaing for the first time since the military took power in Myanmar in 2021, and Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who took office in July 2024, on the sidelines of a meeting in Thailand. All three leaders decided to visit China, while New Delhi did not extend an invitation due to tensions on a number of issues and concerns about the legitimacy of the governments in Dhaka and Naypyitaw.
Mr Modi expressed India’s support for a “democratic, stable, peaceful, progressive and inclusive Bangladesh” and “insisted that rhetoric that damages the environment is best avoided”, according to a statement on the Modi-Yunus meeting issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
During talks with General Min Aung Hlaing, the prime minister “stressed the importance of an early resumption of the democratic process in Myanmar, including through credible and inclusive elections,” the MEA said. The general thanked India for its help in ongoing relief efforts after a devastating earthquake hit Mandalay and other parts of the country last week.
I am looking for invitations to Delhi
In a post on social media, Mr Modi said his meeting with Mr Oli was “productive”. The two leaders discussed “India-Nepal friendship, especially in sectors like energy, connectivity, culture and digital technology”, he said. However, neither side has confirmed talks on Mr Oli’s visit to Delhi, which are still ongoing despite several requests from Kathmandu, which Nepal’s Foreign Minister Arzu Rana confirmed in an interview with The Hindu.
He had a productive meeting with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in Bangkok. India attaches immense priority to relations with Nepal. We discussed various aspects of India-Nepal friendship, especially in sectors like energy, connectivity, culture and digital technology. We also… pic.twitter.com/Ygrj30VyfH
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 4, 2025
New Delhi and Dhaka did not say whether Mr Yunus – whose office also told The Hindu about the request to visit India – had received an invitation from Mr Modi.
Security of Hindu Minorities
Briefing the media after the meetings, Foreign Minister Vikram Misri said the prime minister had expressed concern about the “safety and security of minorities, including Hindus”, who have been targeted by protests since Ms Hasina left Dhaka in August 2024.
“(The prime minister) expressed hope that the (Bangladesh) government will fulfill its responsibilities seriously and ensure that these matters are properly investigated and dealt with,” he added.
Hasina’s extradition request
Mr Yunus’s spokesman Shafiqul Alam said Bangladesh’s interim leader was speaking about alleged human rights abuses by Hasina’s government. He also asked New Delhi to respond to Dhaka’s request for Ms Hasina to be extradited to Bangladesh and to stop her from making “false and inflammatory allegations”.
“We request that the Government of India take appropriate measures to prevent her from continuing to make such inflammatory statements while she remains in your country,” Mr Alam quoted Yunus as saying at the meeting, where he also raised the issue of alleged border killings by Indian security forces and hoped they could be stopped.
The office of Bangladesh’s chief adviser said Mr Yunus said Bangladesh “deeply values its relationship with India”, which is based on an “entwined history”.
“We remain grateful for the unwavering support of the government and people of India during our most trying period in 1971,” Mr. Yunus said, referring to Bangladesh’s liberation war. As a memento, Mr Yunus, a Nobel laureate and former economics professor, presented Mr Modi with a photograph from an event in 2015 when the Prime Minister felicitated him at the Indian Science Conference in Mumbai.
Published – 04 Apr 2025 11:59 IST