External affairs minister S Jaishankar Sunday met the Bangladesh foreign adviser, Touhid Hossain, to discuss bilateral issues amid the continued strife in ties over former PM Sheikh Hasina’s presence in India and what India has described as efforts by government functionaries in Dhaka to vitiate the atmosphere.
While Jaishankar said the conversation was focused on the bilateral relationship and cooperation under the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), a Bangladesh readout said Hossain requested India to consider a meeting of the SAARC Standing Committee. Hossain also called for talks for renewal of the Ganges Water Treaty, adding both sides recognised the challenges in the relationship and the need for joint efforts to address those.
The SAARC Standing Committee comprises foreign secretaries and it hasn’t met since 2016, the year India decided to block the summit process because of Pakistan’s support to cross-border terrorism, or more specifically the Uri terror attack carried out from across the border. The request by Bangladesh comes in the middle of its efforts to revive ties with Pakistan after the ouster of the Hasina government.
Jaishankar also met his counterparts from other BIMSTEC member-states like Nepal and Bhutan on the margins of the Indian Ocean Conference in Muscat. India has sought to promote the interregional BIMSTEC, which excludes Pakistan and counts Thailand as a member, as a more relevant forum for regional cooperation and connectivity, as SAARC remains practically defunct.
Jaishankar’s talks with Hossain, the first high-level engagement between the 2 countries since US President Donald Trump’s return, is significant also because it comes ahead of a possible meeting between PM Narendra Modi and Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus on the margins of the BIMSTEC summit in Thailand on April 3-4. If it happens, it would be the first bilateral meeting between the leaders after Yunus assumed office. Both leaders are likely to attend the summit in person. Modi had discussed concerns related to Bangladesh in the meeting with Trump last week.
According to Dhaka, ahead of talks between border forces this week, the leaders hoped that various border related issues would be discussed and resolved during the meeting. Both sides recognized the challenges the two neighbours are facing in terms of bilateral relations and discussed the necessity to work together to address those, it said in its statement on the Jaishankar-Hossain meeting.
The mention of BIMSTEC in Jaishankar’s post is important also because Bangladesh will officially take over as the Chair of the group from Thailand at the summit. “As the chair, Bangladesh will have the opportunity to lead BIMSTEC, take initiatives for cooperation in different sectors by working together in tandem with all the member states and this will be an opportunity for Bangladesh to re-demonstrate its commitment to the world,” said BIMSTEC Secretary-General I M Pandey last week, adding that the political changes in the country had not diluted Dhaka’s support for the group.
Jaishankar is learnt to have conveyed India’s desire for a constructive and mutually beneficial relationship with Bangladesh in a positive atmosphere. In a statement last week, India had described as regrettable that regular statements made by Bangladesh authorities continued to portray India negatively, holding the Indian government responsible for internal governance issues.
