Mohammad Yunus has expressed his desire to meet PM Modi, Bangladesh is still waiting for a response

New Delhi. Bangladesh, which has expressed its desire to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is yet to receive a response. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar says that this request of the neighboring country is being considered. A parliamentary committee meeting was held on Saturday, in which many neighboring countries including Bangladesh were mentioned. Dhaka had expressed its desire to meet during the BIMSTEC i.e. Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation summit.

PTI Bhasha report quoted sources as saying that Jaishankar said in a parliamentary committee meeting here on Saturday that a meeting between PM Modi and Bangladesh’s interim government’s chief advisor Mohammad Yunus is under consideration. Sources said that in the first meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Foreign Affairs this year, many MPs expressed concern over the attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh and asked what steps India was taking in this regard.

According to sources, Jaishankar told the members that the interim government of Bangladesh has claimed that the attacks on Hindus were ‘politically motivated’ and were not ‘targeting minorities’.

Jaishankar informed the members of the committee about relations with Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. He said that he would talk about Pakistan and China separately later. The special thing is that the meeting of the Consultative Committee on Foreign Affairs was held for the first time in the current tenure of the NDA government.

It is believed that Jaishankar also said in the meeting that SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) is inactive due to Pakistan’s attitude and hence India is trying to strengthen BIMSTEC. This committee headed by Jaishankar includes 22 MPs from both the houses.

India and Bangladesh relations
India and Bangladesh relations remain tense over many issues. These include issues like border dispute, water sharing, attacks on minorities and trade agreements. In February, Jaishankar met Bangladesh Foreign Affairs Advisor Mohammad Tauhid Hussain. During that time the issue of minorities was raised.