When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to Washington to meet with President Donald Trump last week, some who have tried to create divisions between Bangladesh and India as well as between Bangladesh and the United States anticipated the two leaders would announce some kind of ill-advised united front against Bangladesh. (We have written about these efforts to divide the U.S. and Bangladesh previously.) However, what actually happened is much different, and better for regional stability and prosperity.
Prior to the conclusion of the Modi-Trump meetings on February 12, Bangladeshi Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus held a virtual meeting with Trump adviser Elon Musk in which they discussed bringing Musk’s company Starlink to Bangladesh to benefit its people and economy. Starlink provides broadband coverage to 100 countries and territories. During their conversation, Musk praised the work of the Grameen Bank and Professor Yunus’ role as its founder. He welcomed an invitation to come to Bangladesh for the inauguration of Starlink there. This constructive meeting was extensively covered in Bangladesh and in India, due to its newsworthiness and Musk’s central role in the new U.S. administration.
More recently, Chief Adviser Yunus wrote on X, “Had great meeting with Mr @elonmusk. We agreed to work together. Hoping to launch Starlink in Bangladesh soon together with him.” Elon Musk replied, “Looking forward to it!”
Later in the day, Trump and Modi spoke to the press. At one point, an Indian journalist asked Trump a provocative question: “And Mr. President [Trump], what you would like to say about the Bangladesh issue? We saw, and it is evident, how the ‘deep state’ of the United States was involved in regime change during the Biden administration. And then Muhammad Yunus met Junior Soros also. What is your point of view on Bangladesh?”
The journalist was raising the unsubstantiated rumor that the U.S. government helped topple the regime of Sheikh Hasina, which is false. (It is also an insult to the students and citizens who led a mass uprising that resulted in hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries due to the violent government response.) For good measure, the journalist mentioned that Professor Yunus recently met with the son of prominent Democratic donor George Soros, in an obvious effort to anger the president.
Trump responded appropriately, denying U.S. involvement in regime change in Bangladesh and inviting PM Modi to say anything more (as he had nothing more to say). His exact words were: “There was no role for our ‘deep state.’ This is something the Prime Minister [Modi] has been working on for a long time and has been worked on for hundreds of years frankly. I have been reading about it. But I will leave Bangladesh to the Prime Minister.”
It appears from the translation that Modi had nothing more to add about Bangladesh. One can watch the entire interaction with reporters here. The section above takes place starting at 9:36 and ends at 10:12.
It is encouraging that the new Administration declined to insert itself into Bangladesh-India relations while denying a false rumor at the same time.
Hopefully the events of last Wednesday will lay the groundwork for stronger relations between India and Bangladesh, as has been sensibly called for by (among many others) Indian-American venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and Bangladeshi Foreign Adviser Touhid Hossain.
