New Delhi: The head of Bangladesh’s interim government Muhammad Yunus Tuesday sought US support in “rebuilding” the country in a rare one-on-one meeting with President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
Biden offered his “full support” towards the country’s democratic reformation, and also congratulated Yunus on assuming the role of the South Asian country’s chief advisor.
“Both leaders affirmed the close partnership between the United States and Bangladesh, which is rooted in shared democratic values and strong people-to-people ties. President Biden welcomed further engagement between the two governments and offered continued US support as Bangladesh implements its new reform agenda,” said the White House in its readout.
According to the statement from Bangladesh, the Nobel Laureate “stressed his government must succeed in rebuilding the country and would need US cooperation”.
Biden added, if “students could do so much to sacrifice for the country”, then the two leaders should do more.
The meeting was described by Yunus’ press secretary Shafiqul Alam as “rare”.
Earlier in September, US top diplomat in the region, Donald Lu, visited Dhaka and met with a number of senior officials, including Yunus, foreign affairs adviser Md. Touhid Hossain and financial adviser Salehuddin Ahmed.
Yunus’s visit to the US is his first overseas trip since assuming the role of chief adviser after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government in August 2024. The founder of the microfinance Grameen Bank was brought into the role by students, who led the protests against Hasina’s government, urging him to take over as the new head.
Yunus also met Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He is scheduled to meet Pakistani premier Shehbaz Sharif Wednesday.
US-Bangla meets previously & a 34-yr gap
Ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina had briefly met Biden on the sidelines of the G20 in New Delhi in 2023.
The pull-aside meeting discussed the “importance of free and fair elections” and “improving our bilateral relationship across a range of issues, including climate change”, according to John Kirby, the US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications.
At the G20 summit in New Delhi, both Hasina and Biden posed for a selfie, which had gone viral at the time.
Hasina was also the last Bangladeshi leader to visit the US in an official format between 16 and 19 October, 2000.
Before that, General Hussain Muhammad Ershad was invited for an official working visit in 1983. He also met then President George H.W. Bush in 1990.
Other Bangladeshi leaders, like former President Ziaur Rahman (1980) and his wife and erstwhile former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia (1992) went on private visits, but also met then presidents.
The only US President to visit Bangladesh was President Bill Clinton on 20 March, 2000, during Hasina’s premiership.
Yunus is the first leader to meet a US President on the sidelines of a UNGA conclave in 34 years. The last was General Ershad on 1 October, 1990.
During the 1971 Liberation War, the US administration supported Pakistan in its attempts to prevent the foundation of Bangladesh. Washington, however, recognised Dhaka and established diplomatic relations on 4 April, 1972, a year after its independence in March 1971.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
Also read: Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus agrees to be chief adviser to interim govt, reports Bangladeshi media