External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met Bangladesh Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. This is the first bilateral meeting between India and Bangladesh after a massive student protest dethroned the Sheikh Hasina administration and forced her to flee to India.
“Had a meeting with Foreign Affairs Adviser Md. Touhid Hossain of Bangladesh in New York this evening. The conversation focused on our bilateral ties,” Jaishankar said.
Had a meeting with Foreign Affairs Adviser Md. Touhid Hossain of Bangladesh in New York this evening.
The conversation focussed on our bilateral ties. pic.twitter.com/UNtNyHGHyQ
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) September 24, 2024
The Bangladesh Foreign Affairs Ministry also shared a picture from the leaders’ meeting.
🇧🇩Foreign Affairs Adviser, HE Md. Touhid Hossain and 🇮🇳External Affairs Minister, HE @DrSJaishankar, met at #UNGA79 sidelines and discussed issues of mutual interest between #Bangladesh|#India.@IndianDiplomacy @Yunus_Centre @ChiefAdviserGoB pic.twitter.com/gbFomhRS6T
— Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh (@BDMOFA) September 24, 2024
PM Narendra Modi’s much-publicised meeting with the head of Bangladesh’s interim administration, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, could not take place due to different arrival and departure timings.
During an exclusive interview to ABP Live in Dhaka earlier, Hossain had said India is a “very important” neighbour for Bangladesh, and that Dhaka is keen on having “good relations” with New Delhi, which has to be prioritised on people-to-people relations and not just between the two governments.
“India knows what the people of Bangladesh want. But probably, they paid more importance to the relationship with the individual (Sheikh Hasina) and the party (Awami League) rather than the people. It’s for India to decide what they will do, but, if I could make a suggestion, they should look at what the people of Bangladesh want. They know it and they can try to redirect the relations towards that direction,” Hossain said during the interview.
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India’s High Commissioner to Dhaka Pranay Verma had called on Yunus on August 22 and “reiterated India’s commitment to working with Bangladesh to fulfil shared aspirations of peoples of India and Bangladesh for peace, security and development”.
Verma also met Hossain on August 14 and discussed issues related to the progress in bilateral ties.