No alternative to strong Bangladesh-India good ties, says CA Yunus

Highlighting historical close ties, Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus has said there is no alternative to maintaining a good relationship between Bangladesh and India, as there had been some clouds in the relations that mainly came through propaganda.

"Some conflicts had been seen in the midway. I would say some clouds were seen. These clouds mostly came through propaganda. Others will judge the sources of those as propaganda," he told BBC Bangla in an interview published on Monday.

The interim government is set to complete its seven months tenure and diplomatic sources suggest a possible first ever in-person meeting between Chief Adviser Prof Yunus and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the Bimstec Summit to be held in Bangkok on April 4, 2025.

Responding to a specific question, Dr Yunus said the relations between the two neighbours are in very good shape and there has been "no deterioration".

Following that, Dr Yunus said, there had been some misunderstandings. "We are trying to overcome those misunderstandings. There is no problem in our basic relationship," Dr Yunus said.

The chief adviser said he had always explained that the relations between Bangladesh and India are so deep, still the relationship is in good shape and it will remain good in the future. "There is no alternative to maintain good relations between the two countries," said Dr Yunus.

He said that the relationship between Bangladesh and India is "historically, politically and economically" are very close and they "cannot deviate" from this, reports UNB.

Dr Yunus also referred to huge "interdependencies" on each other.

He said there is continuous communication between the two countries.

The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent a message to Chief Adviser Prof Yunus, later they had a telephone conversation, and Modi invited Prof Yunus to join the third Voice of Global South Summit hosted virtually by New Delhi on August 17 last year.

On January 1 this year, Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain made it clear that maintaining good relationships with three big countries - India, China and the United States- is among the priorities in 2025. He stressed that Dhaka’s ties with Delhi will advance beyond a single issue.

Adviser Hossain recently had a meeting with Indian External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar in Muscat, Oman and invited him to visit Bangladesh as part of Foreign Minister-level mechanism that the two countries have.

Hossain said both Dhaka and New Delhi agreed to have "good working relations" by removing the remaining problems.

"We - both sides - agreed that we need to reach a good working relationship," Hossain told reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs referring to his recent meeting with Jaishankar in Muscat, Oman.

He said businesses have already picked up and apparently reached their previous level but there are still some issues like visa related problems.

Meanwhile, Jaishankar in a separate program in New Delhi said Bangladesh needs to make up its mind what kind of relationship it wants with New Delhi, stressing that the two neighbours share a very special history that goes back to 1971.

“If every day someone in the interim government stands up and blames India for everything, some of those things if you look at the reports are absolutely ridiculous. You cannot, on one hand, say I would now like to have good relations with you, but I get up every morning and blame you for everything that goes wrong. It is also a decision that they have to make," Jaishankar said while speaking at the Delhi University Literature Festival.

He said India has sent a very clear signal to Dhaka that it would like to see things “calm down” and the resumption of normal bilateral ties, but it is unhappy with the constantly hostile messaging emanating from across the border.

Jaishankar shared two aspects of what is "very troubling" for them.

The spate of attacks on minorities in Bangladesh, obviously it is something which impacts our thinking and it is something we have to speak up about, which we have done," he said, sharing the first aspect of the situation.

The second aspect is they (Bangladesh) have their politics, but at the end of the day, the two countries are neighbours, Jaishankar said, adding that "they have to make up their minds on what kind of relationship they want to have with us.”

"We have a long history with Bangladesh. We have a very special history with Bangladesh. It goes back to 1971," Jaishankar said.

A fugitive group (Bangladesh Awami League) has left the country or their leadership has left, the Chief Adviser told BBC Bangla, adding that they are trying their best to unsettle it (the country).

Dr Yunus spoke to BBC Bangla about the law and order situation, reforms and elections, the formation of a new student leadership party, and political developments during the nearly seven months of the interim government under his leadership.