Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Indian External  Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj paid a courtesy visit to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina.

Sushma Swaraj is on a week long trip to the United States to attend the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session and will be holding many bilateral and trilateral meetings with leaders attending the session. She will be addressing the annual session of the UN General Assembly on September 23.

She met the Bangladeshi Prime Minister and the meeting was very short terming it as a courtesy visit.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar during a press conference informed that the meeting between the two leaders was purely bilateral and the Rohingya issues was not brought up during the meeting. “The meeting with the prime minister of Bangladesh was more in the nature of a courtesy meeting. It was a very short meeting. The issue of Rohingya did not come up during the meeting for discussion,” he said.

After the meeting, he also tweeted “Warm encounter reflecting our historical and cultural ties. Courtesy call on Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina by EAM (External Affairs Minister).”

Meanwhile, Bangladesh which is facing the problem of accommodating the Rohingya refugee fleeing from Myanmar has sought the intervention of the international community. Bangladesh has urged the UN to put pressure on Myanmar to address the Rohingya issue.

Rohingya after the army attack in Myanmar are fleeing the country seeking shelter and safety in neighbouring countries. Bangladesh is one of the countries which has extended shelter to the community but is now facing problems to handle the situation.

According to the UN reports around 410,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state into Bangladesh since August 25.

However, the Rohingya issue was not brought up during the meeting of Sushma Swaraj and Sheikh Hasina.

The External Affairs Minister, during the day also met the Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay and like the Rohingya issues, the Dohklam dispute was also not discussed between the two leaders. Kumar said that since the Dokhlam dispute was already resolved, there was no need to bring up the matter during the meet. He also added that during the meeting between Swaraj and Tobgay, the two leaders discussed the ways to further strengthen the bilateral cooperation between the two countries on a number of projects.

After the meeting, Kumar tweeted “Strengthening traditionally unique bilateral relations. EAM @SushmaSwaraj meets with Bhutanese PM @tsheringtobgay in New York.”

The Bangladeshi Prime Minister also tweeted that “Such a pleasure meeting H.E @SushmaSwaraj ji, External Affairs Minister of India. We discussed the wide range of bilateral cooperation.”

Bhutan which is also a neighbouring country sharing the border had faced the consequences of the standoff and expressed relief when the matter was resolved. Bhutan welcomed the end of the standoff and hoped that both the countries would in future respect the boundaries and refrain from getting into any such disputes again, maintaining the peace and status quo at the tri-junction.