Following his meeting with Bangladesh’s Foreign Affairs Advisor, Touhid Hossain, Jaishankar’s post on X touched upon other issues discussed but refrained from mentioning SAARC.
India-Bangladesh talks: As Minister of External Affairs, S Jaishankar met Bangladesh’s interim government’s Foreign Affairs Advisor, Touhid Hossain, at the sidelines of a multilateral conference in Muscat. The Bangladeshi side urged India to support reviving the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Dhaka’s other requests to New Delhi also included initiating discussions for the renewal of the Ganges Water Treaty signed in 1996.
Notably, Bangladesh’s new interim government led by Muhammad Yunus has been insisting on the revival of SAARC, which was suspended in the wake of the India-Pakistan conflict. Following his meeting with Touhid Hossain, Jaishankar’s post on X touched upon other issues discussed but decided to refrain from mentioning the SAARC discussion.
What does Jaishankar’s post say?
Jaishankar’s post on X reads, “Met Foreign Affairs Adviser Md. Touhid Hossain of the Interim Government of Bangladesh. The conversation was focused on our bilateral relationship, as also on BIMSTEC.”
However, with India adopting a strict stance against Pakistan and expecting Pakistan to stop harbouring terrorists for anti-India activities, New Delhi is less likely to give heed to the request of reviving SAARC, which gives Pakistan a diplomatic platform.
Replacing Thailand, Bangladesh will be the chair of the 6th BIMSTEC summit scheduled to take place in Bangkok from April 2 to 4 this year.
The meeting comes as the second engagement between Jaishankar and Hossain following their discussion after they met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September last year, a month after Yunus assumed power following the ouster of then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina in a violent student-led uprising.
A decline in India-Bangladesh ties
After former PM Sheikh Hasina was ousted from Bangladesh last year, the ties between India and Bangladesh came under severe strain over attacks on minority Hindus. There had been a spate of incidents of violence against Hindus and other minorities, as well as attacks on temples in Bangladesh that triggered strong concerns in New Delhi.
Bangladesh and India share an over 4,000-kilometre border, which also saw sporadic unrest. Chiefs of two border forces are set to meet in New Delhi this week in their annual conference.
(With inputs from PTI)
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