Chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus has laid emphasis on exploring economics opportunities through regional cooperation but noted the problems that Bangladesh faces with India right now because they ‘did not like’ what the students have done in Bangladesh.
‘In the process, all of us benefit [regional economy] from that. So I said, we think about the regional economy. This is what we should be doing. We have problems with India right now because they didn’t like what the students have done,’ he said during a conversation in New York.
Asia Society and the Asia Society Policy Institute hosted the chief adviser for an address, moderated by Kyung-wha Kang, president and chief executive officer of Asia Society, on Wednesday New York time, reported United News of Bangladesh.
Yunus said that India was hosting former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Hasina who created all these problems and killed the young people. ‘And that creates a lot of tension between India and Bangladesh. Also lots of fake news are coming from the other side. This is a very bad thing.’
Professor Yunus flagged the fake news of the Islamist movement saying that those were the Talibans and they had been trained. ‘They even said, I’m a Taliban too. I don’t have the beard. I just left it home,’ he joked.
‘You have to go through Bangladesh. You can invest in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is going to invest in your territory. That’s what the whole idea of the SAARC,’ Yunus said while talking about the regional economy.
In a separate meeting, the chief adviser said that trials of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her cronies were a top priority of his government.
During a meeting with the president of Finland, Alexander Stubb, on the sidelines of the UNGA on the same day, Yunus stressed that the trials were being conducted in accordance with international legal standards.
‘Despite facing trial, she continues to make incendiary and destabilising remarks,’ he said, adding that the interim government had sought her extradition to face justice.
During the meeting, the two leaders discussed a wide range of issues, including the upcoming general elections in Bangladesh, United Nations reform, the Rohingya crisis, the Russia-Ukraine war, Bangladesh’s bid to join ASEAN, and the country’s efforts to access hydropower from Nepal and Bhutan.
Yunus expressed gratitude to the international community for its continued support of the interim government since it assumed office in August last year.
He reaffirmed the interim government’s commitment to holding free, fair, and credible elections in February, allowing the country’s 126 million voters to cast their ballots peacefully and in a festive atmosphere.
‘Our people have been deprived of a free and fair election for the past 15 years. Now, they are eagerly looking forward to February,’ the chief adviser added.
Yunus told president Stubb that major political and institutional reforms were underway in Bangladesh.
He noted that political parties were expected to sign the July Charter, a framework for deeper political reform.
Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha reported that Professor Yunus held a bilateral meeting with prime minister of the Netherlands Dick Schoof, president of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni and other world leaders in the UN Headquarters on the sidelines of the 80th United Nations General Assembly in New York, USA.
During the meeting with Yunus, Meloni proposed establishing an Italy-Bangladesh Business Forum aimed at promoting her country’s investment in Bangladesh.
Welcoming the proposal, Yunus said that while the two countries shared longstanding ties, there remained significant potential to expand trade and investment cooperation.
The leaders also discussed a wide range of issues, including the next general election in Bangladesh, migration challenges, the Rohingya refugee crisis, and a possible visit by prime minister Meloni to Bangladesh in December.
On the issue of migration, the Italian prime minister expressed her country’s willingness to engage constructively with Dhaka to ensure safe migration pathways that would benefit both nations.
She underscored the need for stronger measures to combat human trafficking, which has claimed the lives of hundreds of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea.
Meanwhile, president of the Club de Madrid and former president of Slovenia, Danilo Türk, met Yunus and extended an invitation to him to become a member of the organisation.
