Bangladesh’s interim government head, Muhammad Yunus, met Alex Soros, son of American billionaire George Soros and chairperson of his Open Society Foundations (OSF). The meeting comes days after the Trump administration in the US halted foreign aid to Dhaka. After their meeting in New York, this is their second meeting since October last year. Yunus’ office in a post on X said that the Open Society Foundations leadership met Chief Advisor Yunus to discuss Bangladesh’s efforts to rebuild the economy, trace siphoned-off assets, combat misinformation, and carry out vital economic reforms.
Notably, Soros’ OSF has been accused of facilitating a regime change in several regions, including Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America, while some allegations also pertain to the regime change in Bangladesh, which saw the ouster of Sheikh Hasina.
The Bangladeshi media reports that the area of discussion involved economic reforms, asset recovery, media freedom, new cybersecurity laws, and addressing the Rohingya crisis. Alex Soros also pledges support for Bangladesh, as the Dhaka Tribune reports him saying, “We will explore ways to support your efforts in these areas.”
Earlier, the United States donor agency, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), decided to abruptly terminate or suspend any work under contracts, work orders, grants, cooperative agreements, or other assistance or procurement instruments being undertaken in the country.
In its letter, USAID directed all USAID/Bangladesh implementing partners to “immediately stop or suspend any work under USAID/Bangladesh contract, work order, grant, cooperative agreement, or other assistance or acquisition instrument.”
