DHAKA: Bangladeshi leader Muhammad Yunus will travel to Beijing on a diplomatic goodwill visit this month as frosty relations with neighboring India spur his caretaker administration to court new friends.
\nThe Nobel Peace laureate took charge of Bangladesh last August after the ouster of autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India after a student-led uprising.
\nIndia was the biggest benefactor of Hasina\u2019s government and her ouster sent cross-border relations into a tailspin.
\nThat has prompted the caretaker government helmed by Yunus to seek greater ties with Beijing, New Delhi\u2019s chief rival for power and influence in the Asian subcontinent.
\n\u201cBangladesh aims to elevate this bilateral relationship to new heights,\u201d Yunus\u2019s media secretary Shafiqul Alam told reporters on Sunday in a briefing on next week\u2019s visit.
\n\u201cThey will discuss a wide range of issues concerning both countries.\u201d
\nYunus is slated to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during the March 26-29 visit.
\nHe will also receive an honorary doctorate from Peking University and meet several Chinese firms to explore investment opportunities.
\n\u201cBangladesh aspires to become a manufacturing hub and is keen to partner with China in this endeavor,\u201d Alam said.
\nDiplomatic talks are also expected to touch on Bangladesh\u2019s immense population of Rohingya refugees, most of whom fled a violent military crackdown in neighboring Myanmar in 2017.
\nChina has acted as mediator between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the past to broker the repatriation of the persecuted minority, although efforts stalled because of Myanmar\u2019s unwillingness to have them returned.
\nInterim Bangladeshi foreign minister Touhid Hossain visited China in January in what was his first official trip abroad.
\nChina\u2019s ambassador in Dhaka, Yao Wen, said last month that Beijing \u201cfirmly supports Bangladesh in upholding its national independence, sovereignty, and dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DHAKA: Bangladeshi leader Muhammad Yunus will travel to Beijing on a diplomatic goodwill visit this month as frosty relations with neighboring India spur his caretaker administration to court new friends. The Nobel Peace laureate took charge of Bangladesh last August after the ouster of autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India after a student-led […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467515,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-467504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n