Cairo:
Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus said on Thursday he had “agreed to strengthen ties with Pakistan”, a move likely to further test his country’s icy relations with India.
Pakistan and Bangladesh were once one nation but split during a brutal 1971 war, drawing Bangladesh closer to Pakistan’s archrival India.
But Dhaka’s ties with New Delhi have crumbled after a student-led revolution in August toppled leader Sheikh Hasina, who had the backing of India and now lives in exile there.
Yunus, who met Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on the sidelines of a conference in Egypt, said he wanted to resolve outstanding grievances over Dhaka’s bloody separation from Islamabad in 1971.
“The problems kept coming back again and again,” Yunus told Sharif, according to a statement from his office. “Let’s solve these problems so we can move forward.”
Sharif said he had a “warm and cordial exchange” with Yunus.
“Together we reaffirmed our commitment to deepen bilateral and multilateral cooperation,” he said on social media platform X.
Both men “agreed to strengthen relations between the two countries through increased trade, commerce and exchange of sports and cultural delegations,” said a statement from Yunus’ office.
In November, the first cargo ship in decades to sail directly from Pakistan to Bangladesh successfully offloaded its containers at Chittagong Port.
The leaders were taking part in a summit in Cairo of eight Muslim-majority countries, the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation.
Yunus said he was determined to revive the moribund eight-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), which had largely stalled due to feuding between Islamabad and New Delhi.
“This is a top priority,” Yunus told Sharif. “I want a summit of SAARC leaders, even if it is just for a photo op, because that will send a strong message.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)