Yunus-Modi meeting, meeting uncertain!

The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit will be held in Thailand on April 4. Top leaders of the member countries have agreed to attend. Secretary General Indra Mani Pandey gave this information at a view-exchange program with members of the Diplomatic Correspondents Association Bangladesh (DCAB) at the BIMSTEC office in Dhaka on Tuesday. He said that the BIMSTEC summit will be held in Thailand on April 4. Top leaders of the member countries have agreed to attend. However, the meeting of the top leaders with each other on the sidelines will be decided by the member countries through mutual discussions.

A diplomatic source in Dhaka said that Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the chief advisor to the interim government, will attend the BIMSTEC summit in Thailand. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to attend the summit. There is a possibility that the head of the interim government and the Prime Minister of India will meet there. However, it has not been decided at the time of writing this report whether Yunus-Modi will have a private meeting on the sidelines of the conference. It may be recalled that the BIMSTEC conference was supposed to be held in Bangkok in September last year. But it was postponed at the last minute due to political unrest in Thailand. The Chief Advisor was supposed to make his first foreign trip by participating in that conference. After the BIMSTEC conference was postponed, Dr. Yunus-Modi was supposed to meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in September. But since the two leaders were not present in New York at the same time, the meeting did not take place.

BIMSTEC has no competition or conflict with SAARC: Secretary General
Meanwhile, BIMSTEC Secretary General Indra Mani Pandey openly said at the exchange of views with DCAB that no matter what anyone says for geopolitical reasons, BIMSTEC has no competition or conflict with SAARC, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. Stating that the same country can work in multiple forums, he said, BIMSTEC is in no way a platform against China or Pakistan. In response to a question at the exchange of views, the BIMSTEC Secretary General said, both SAARC and BIMSTEC are regional organizations. Several countries are members of SAARC and BIMSTEC, while some are members of ASEAN.

There is no problem in this regard. In another question, the Secretary General said, Bangladesh is working to strengthen BIMSTEC as a founding member. Accordingly, we are getting appropriate support from the current interim government in BIMSTEC. We also respect the political changes in Bangladesh. Stating that Bangladesh is going to be the chair of BIMSTEC at the next summit, he said, it will be an opportunity to share and implement the thoughts of Nobel laureate economist Dr. Muhammad Yunus, who has a multi-dimensional identity.

The exchange of views was attended by DCAB President AKM Moinuddin, General Secretary Arifuzzaman Mamun and members.