Bangladesh’s Yunus to visit China this month

DHAKA, March 17: Bangladeshi leader Muhammad Yunus will travel to Beijing on a diplomatic goodwill visit this month, as frosty relations with neighboring India prompt his caretaker administration to court new allies.

The Nobel Peace laureate took charge of Bangladesh last August after the ouster of autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India following a student-led uprising.

India was the biggest benefactor of Hasina’s government, and her ouster sent cross-border relations into a tailspin.

This has prompted the caretaker government led by Yunus to seek stronger ties with Beijing, New Delhi’s chief rival for power and influence in the Asian subcontinent.

“Bangladesh aims to elevate this bilateral relationship to new heights,” Yunus’s media secretary, Shafiqul Alam, told reporters on Sunday in a briefing about next week’s visit.

“They will discuss a wide range of issues concerning both countries.”

Yunus is slated to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during the March 26-29 visit.

He will also receive an honorary doctorate from Peking University and meet several Chinese firms to explore investment opportunities.

“Bangladesh aspires to become a manufacturing hub and is keen to partner with China in this endeavor,” Alam said.

Diplomatic talks are also expected to address Bangladesh’s large population of Rohingya refugees, most of whom fled a violent military crackdown in neighboring Myanmar in 2017.

China has acted as a mediator between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the past to broker the repatriation of the persecuted minority, although efforts stalled due to Myanmar’s unwillingness to have them returned.

Interim Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Touhid Hossain visited China in January on his first official trip abroad.

China’s ambassador in Dhaka, Yao Wen, said last month that Beijing “firmly supports Bangladesh in upholding its national independence, sovereignty, and dignity.”

RSS / Agence France Press