Jaishankar likely to meet Yunus’s adviser next week as Bangladesh hopes for Hasina’s extradition

Amid the brewing tensions between Bangladesh and India, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar is likely to meet Bangladesh’s Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain in Muscat next week. According to ANI, the news was confirmed by foreign officials from Bangladesh. The officials noted that the meeting will be held on the sidelines of the 8th Indian Ocean Conference.

“Our Foreign Affairs Adviser will hold a bilateral meeting with the India External Affairs Minister in Muscat on February 16,” a Bangladesh Foreign Ministry Official told ANI. It is pertinent to note that Jaishankar and Touhid met each other in September last year in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
The meeting between the two diplomats is being floated at a time when the top United Nations officials said that the extradition of the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, is a bilateral issue between Dhaka and New Delhi. The officials expressed hopes that both the states would cooperate and support each other towards ensuring accountability.

Modi-Yunus meet on the card?
The Bangladeshi officials said that Touhid may convey Bangladesh’s political situation and the interim government’s desire to hold a free, fair and credible election by December this year.
“The Bangladesh interim government is uncomfortable with Sheikh Hasina’s speech on social media while staying in India. Touhid Hossain may convey the concern of Bangladesh to the India External Affairs Minister during the upcoming meeting,” the official averred.

“A discussion is going on in the diplomatic channel whether a meeting between the Chief Adviser of Bangladesh interim government, Muhammad Yunus, and Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, can take place in April in Bangkok,” they furthered.
The officials also told ANI that PM Modi and Chief Adviser Yunus may visit Thailand to participate in the BIMSTEC summit on April 4 in Bangkok. Meanwhile, the border guards of the two nations will meet on February 17 in Delhi.

UN wants to keep extradition between India and Bangladesh
The UN officials maintained that the two nations should hold talks to resolve the issue. “The bottom line is that all those responsible for what happened and what amount to very serious human rights violations and possibly international crimes are held accountable,” Rory Mungoven, Chief of the Asia-Pacific Region of The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said at a press briefing in Geneva on Wednesday.

The former Prime Minister resigned and fled to India on August 5 following violent protests which started off as a demonstration against the government’s controversial quota system. This marked the end 16-year reign of Hasina in the country.

Last year, Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) issued arrest warrants for Hasina and several former Cabinet ministers, advisers, and military and civil officials for “crimes against humanity and genocide”.

While responding to questions on Hasina and her extradition from India, Mungoven said: “The issue of extradition is really a bilateral process that we hope that states will cooperate and support each other towards this goal of accountability, whether that’s India or other states where people may take refuge.” “The important thing is cooperation first,” he said adding that any extradition or trial process should respect due process and international standards.

Hence, it will be interesting to see how the interaction between Jaishankar and Touhid over Hasina’s extradition would play out.