The Chief Advisor of Bangladesh wants to have a sideline meeting with Modi at the UN session
The chief advisor of the interim government of Bangladesh. Muhammad Yunus said that he wants to have a sideline meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the UN General Session.
The 79th General Session of the United Nations is going to start in New York on Tuesday, September 10.
In an interview given to India’s state-owned news agency Press Trust of India (PTI). Yunus also said that he will try to gather the heads of government of all the member states of the South Asian Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to take a picture.
The second part of the interview given at his official residence in Dhaka on Sunday was published in the Indian media today, Friday.
He said, ‘Of course we will try to meet (Narendra Modi). I will also try to take a picture by bringing the heads of government of the SAARC countries together. SAARC alliance was formed with a noble objective in mind. Now it exists only on paper. Sark has no function. We are forgetting the name of SAARC. I want to revive the SAARC spirit.’
“The SAARC conference is not being held for a long time. If we all come together, many problems will be solved’, added the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Yunus.
According to the preliminary list of speakers provided by the United Nations, Modi is scheduled to address the General Assembly on September 26.
The current member countries of SAARC are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The last SAARC summit was scheduled to be held in Islamabad in 2016. But India refused to join because of the terrorist attack on the Uri army camp in Jammu and Kashmir. Later, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also refused to join it, so the conference was cancelled.
The Chief Adviser pointed out that although the European Union (EU) was established with similar objectives as SAARC, the European Union has achieved much larger goals based on mutual understanding. Compared to that, SAARC’s income is almost zero.
Dr. Yunus told PTI, ‘European countries have gained a lot from the EU. We need to ensure that SAARC remains viable. Look at the EU, it’s an extraordinary alliance. If there is a problem with Pakistan, the problem can be solved differently. But SAARC activities cannot be stopped.’
Dr. about the Rohingya. Yunus said that Myanmar should take back the people of their own country and he would seek India’s help to convince them of this. He also said that both China and India need help to deal with this crisis.
“We need the help of both India and China to address this issue. About 1 million people (Rohingya) have come to Bangladesh and their numbers are increasing. This is putting a terrible pressure on the economy of Bangladesh. A few countries have adopted them, but these are very few in number. Myanmar has good relations with India. So India’s cooperation is needed to explain this to Myanmar’, he added.
In 2017, more than 1 million Rohingya fled to Bangladesh in the face of violent military repression in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. The United Nations has compared the violence to ethnic cleansing.
