NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held a meeting with the chief advisor to Bangladesh’s interim government, Muhammad Yunus, as both leaders discussed bilateral relations between the two nations.
The meeting was held on the sidelines of Bimstec (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) Summit, for which Prime Minister Modi is in Bangkok, Thailand. Two leaders met for the first time since Bangladesh’s then-prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, was ousted from power in August 2024. Hasina is now believed to be living in exile in Delhi.
External affairs minister S Jaishankar and national security advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval also attended the meeting.
Earlier, on Thursday also, two leaders were seen together alongside other leaders from the Bimstec bloc in Bangkok, but the bilateral sit-down on Friday was the first since relations frayed between the neighbouring nations.
After Hasina’s ouster, who was seen as a reliable and trusted friend of India, the relationship between India and Bangladesh has been strained amid Delhi’s concerns over the violence targeting minorities and a rise of hardline Islamist forces in the South Asian country.
