The Indian Ministry of External Affairs on Friday announced that Indian prime minister Narendra Modi鈥檚 engagements in Bangkok without any mention about a bilateral meeting with chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC summit.聽聽
At the invitation of the prime minister of Thailand Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Modi will visit Bangkok in April 3-4 to participate in the 6th BIMSTEC summit to be held on April 4, hosted by Thailand, the current BIMSTEC chair, and for an official visit.
Foreign secretary Md Jashim Uddin on Tuesday said that Dhaka was ready to see a bilateral meeting between Professor Yunus and Modi on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC summit and was expecting a positive response from Delhi.
He said that the strain that was there in the relations between Bangladesh and India could be overcome if the bilateral meeting was held between Professor Yunus and Modi.
鈥極n our part, we are ready for the talks. We will be waiting,鈥� Jashim said, adding that Bangladesh was giving much importance to the meeting as Dhaka believed that the meeting would help take forward the relations.
Bangladesh approached India through the diplomatic channel to arrange a meeting between CA Yunus and聽 Modi on the sidelines of the upcoming BIMSTEC summit in Bangkok.
Professor Yunus is scheduled to pay a two-day visit to Thailand to attend the BIMSTEC Summit.
This would be the first physical meeting of the BIMSTEC leaders since the 4th BIMSTEC summit in Kathmandu, Nepal in 2018.
The past 5th BIMSTEC summit was held at Colombo, Sri Lanka in March 2022 in virtual format.
The 6th summit鈥檚 theme is BIMSTEC 鈥� Prosperous, Resilient and Open.
The leaders are expected to deliberate on ways and means to infuse greater momentum to BIMSTEC cooperation during the Summit.
The leaders are also expected to discuss various institution and capacity building measures to augment collaboration within the BIMSTEC framework.
