India and Bangladesh have maintained their ties despite “turbulent changes” and changes in the “political wind” in the country, India’s High Commissioner to Dhaka has said, referring to the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on August 5 and the violence that followed.
The comments by High Commissioner Pranay Verma came on a day Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh’s interim government said in an address on Sunday to the nation to mark 100 days in government that he would ask India to “send back” Ms. Hasina, who has been living there, a demand that could become a sore point between New Delhi and Dhaka in the future.
In his first such major speech, since the interim government led by Mr. Yunus took over, the envoy said that bilateral projects on transport and energy, including this week’s inauguration of a power supply line from Nepal to Bangladesh via India, as well as the continuation of trade in the past few months demonstrated how interlinked the two countries are, and that ties cannot be reduced “to a single issue”.
“The fact that our trade and economic ties, our transport and energy connectivity, and our people-to-people engagements have sustained a positive momentum, despite the turbulent changes in Bangladesh, shows that our relations are truly multifaceted, and cannot be reduced to a single agenda or issue,” he said, in an address to the Bay of Bengal Conference organised by the Centre for Governance Studies here on Sunday.
Referring to Bangladesh’s decision to shut down terror camps in 2009, and curb anti-India activities in the past two decades, Mr. Verma said that the country’s “zerotolerance on terrorism” proved vital for bilateral cooperation and prosperity. “It will remain an important factor in the future development of our two countries, our region and our relationship.”
The comments are significant as India and Bangladesh have seen a strain in ties after Ms. Hasina’s move to India as well as amid India’s concerns over the targeting of minorities including the 13.1 millionstrong Hindu community in the country. Last week, the Ministry of External Affairs once again urged the Yunus government to take “strong measures” to ensure the safety of Hindus, after reports of attacks on the homes of the minority community in Chittagong.
“There are irritants but they have not restricted the overall forward movement in our relations,” Mr. Verma said, adding that the inter-dependence between both countries and mutual benefit “will keep reasserting itself again and again, regardless of changes in the political wind”. Mr. Verma was present during an address by Mr. Yunus at the conference on Saturday, where he called for the region and the international community to engage with the “New Bangladesh”.
In his speech, Mr. Verma said Bangladesh is India’s largest trading partner in South Asia and the fifth largest in the world, and that India had given Bangladesh “duty-free, quota-free access” for more than a decade under the regional SAFTA agreement.