Bangladesh-India must maintain good relations in their own interests: Yunus tells DW

Bangladesh and India must maintain good relations for the benefit of both countries, interim government's Chief Adviser Dr Muhammad Yunus said in an interview with Deutsche Welle.

"India is our neighbour and can be considered our only neighbour, as it surrounds us on all sides. Therefore, we should have the best possible relationship with India, and we will. Neither we nor they have any alternative," he said.  

Maintaining a hostile relationship between the two countries will benefit no one, Dr Yunus told the German broadcaster today (12 September).  

"Our utmost effort will be to maintain the best possible relationship. Taking friendship to the highest level is our goal."

Dr Yunus also pointed to other bilateral issues, such as river water sharing and the cross-border movement of people. He said his administration will work together with New Delhi to resolve these issues.

"We have to work together and there are international ways of solving that. We will follow that path and make a very happy solution," he said.

Talking about the possible constitutional reforms, he said, "We cannot do anything without a consensus because our strength comes from the consensus. If we can establish a consensus, we will go ahead and do that."

Dr Yunus also declined to give an exact date for the next election, saying that it will be held as soon as possible.

"That is our mandate. We want to come to the election and have a decent election, a beautiful election, and celebrate the victory of a particular party or whatever party that comes in, and hand over the power to the newly-elected government. So this should be as brief as possible. We cannot give you the date and time right now," he added.

'Corrupt practices shattered economy'

During the interview, Yunus also accused Hasina's administration of corruption, which has "destroyed almost all institutions" and "shattered the economy".

"You do not know where to begin because everything has to be restarted in a different way," he said, adding that his interim administration wants to establish citizens' rights, human rights, democracy and everything that goes with good governance.

"Money syphoned off from Bangladesh, through government channels to bank channels and so on. Contracts were signed not for the benefit of the people but for the benefit of a family or family members, and something like that. So, those ugly things that you see when a government goes in the wrong direction, things happen, terrible things happen in the economy and so on," added the chief adviser.

Bangladesh's $450-billion (€412-billion) economy has struggled since the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly when it comes to creating enough, decent-paying jobs for its vast youth population. 

Russia's war against Ukraine has also sharply increased the cost of fuel and food imports, causing the South Asian nation's foreign exchange reserves to shrink.

Dhaka was forced to seek financial support from the IMF last year in the form of a $4.7-billion bailout.

'Rohingya influx problem for us'

He also briefly touched upon Dhaka's policy toward the Rohingya people. "The Rohingya are trickling in as trouble begins in Rakhine," he said, referring to the armed conflict in Myanmar's western province that shares a long border with Bangladesh.

Dhaka said at least 18,000 Rohingya have crossed over in recent months to escape the escalating violence in Rakhine.

"It creates a problem for us, because we already have nearly a million Rohingyas living in the country, we don't know what is the future of that," Yunus said.