BANGKOK (Reuters) – India’s prime minister met with the head of Bangladesh’s interim government on the sidelines of a regional summit in Bangkok on Friday, the Bangladesh government’s press office said, their first meeting since the ouster of Bangladeshi premier Sheikh Hasina last year.
Relations between the South Asian neighbours, which were robust under Hasina, have deteriorated since she fled the country in August in the face of massive student-led protests and sought shelter in India.
Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who took over as the chief adviser of an interim government in Dhaka after Hasina’s exit, met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the fringes of the BIMSTEC summit in Bangkok, the press office said.
BIMSTEC, or the Bay of Bengal initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, also includes Thailand, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan.
Public opinion in Bangladesh turned against India, in part, for its decision to provide sanctuary to Hasina. New Delhi has not responded to Dhaka’s request to send her home for trial.
India has repeatedly urged Bangladesh to protect its minority Hindus, saying they were being targeted in the Muslim-majority country since Yunus took charge. Dhaka says the violence has been exaggerated and is not a communal issue.
“The hope would be that this meeting would start the process of rebuilding some engagement,” said Harsh Pant, foreign policy head at the Observer Research Foundation, an Indian think-tank.
“I think at this point, simply stabilizing the relationship perhaps should be the priority.”
With longstanding cultural and business ties, the two nations share a 4,000 km (2,500 mile) border. India also played a key role in the 1971 war with Pakistan that led to the creation of Bangladesh.
(Reporting by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by John Mair)
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