Bangladesh’s Yunus heads to China for first state visit
Bangladesh’s Yunus heads to China for first state visit
by AFP Staff Writers
Dhaka (AFP) Mar 26, 2025
Bangladeshi leader Muhammad Yunus flew to Beijing on Wednesday for his first state visit as frosty relations with neighbouring India spur his caretaker administration to court new friends.
The 84-year-old Nobel laureate will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday before returning Saturday after several other high-level meetings.
Yunus took charge of Bangladesh last August after the toppling of autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina, who fled to New Delhi after a student-led uprising.
India was the biggest benefactor of Hasina’s government and her overthrow sent cross-border relations into a tailspin.
“Muhammad Yunus has chosen China for his first state visit and with this Bangladesh is sending a message,” Dhaka’s top foreign ministry bureaucrat Mohammad Jashim Uddin told reporters on Tuesday.
Several agreements are expected to be signed on economic and technical assistance, cultural and sports cooperation, and media collaboration between the two countries.
“We are expecting declarations on key issues including the economy, investment and economic zones,” Jashim Uddin said.
Talks are also expected to touch on Bangladesh’s immense population of Rohingya refugees, most of whom fled a violent military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar in 2017.
China has acted as a mediator between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the past to broker the repatriation of the persecuted minority, although efforts stalled because of Myanmar’s unwillingness to have them returned.
“Rohingya repatriation will be a point of discussion as we all know China previously attempted to broker a deal,” Jashim Uddin said.
Yunus will also attend the Investment Dialogue with Chinese Business Leaders and is set to receive an honorary doctorate from Peking University.
Tensions between India and Bangladesh have prompted a number of tit-for-tat barbs between senior figures from both governments.
They have also almost entirely halted the flow of medical tourism to India by Bangladeshis, thousands of whom crossed the border each year to seek care in their larger neighbour.
Jashim Uddin said talks in Beijing would touch on the establishment of a Chinese “Friendship Hospital” in Bangladesh.
Yunus’s caretaker administration has the unenviable task of bedding down democratic reforms ahead of fresh elections expected by mid-2026.
It has requested India allow Hasina’s extradition to face crimes against humanity charges for the killing of hundreds of protesters during the unrest that toppled her government, to no avail.
Yunus has also sought a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a bid to reset relations, with both expected to be at the same regional summit in Bangkok next month.
His government has yet to receive a response, with Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar saying the request was “under review”.
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