Yunus-Biden meet today: Reform assistance gets priority, India issue may come up

The bilateral meeting between Chief Adviser to the interim government Dr Muhammad Yunus and US President Joe Biden will be held on the sidelines of the 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session in New York on Tuesday.

Diplomatic sources said the issue of US assistance to the reform programmes undertaken by the interim government of Bangladesh is like to get priority during the meeting, while issues related to India may also come up.

The bilateral meeting will held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on Tuesday at 11:30 am local time (9:30 pm Dhaka Time), according to diplomatic sources in Dhaka and New York.

No bilateral meeting between any top leader of Bangladesh and the US president has been held over the past three decades. The heads of state and government of Bangladesh always met and had conversations at the reception hosted by the US president.

Dr Yunus arrived in New York on Monday night local time to attend the UNGA session.

A source in New York said the Biden-Yuns meeting may last for 30 minutes, declining to disclose details on whether other members from both sides would join the meeting.

Foreign Secretary Md Jasim Uddin told Prothom Alo the top two leaders will discuss how the overall bilateral cooperation can be strengthened further. Particularly, the issue of reform initiatives for various important sectors of the country taken after the formation of the interim government will be the priority. The issue of the Rohingya crisis may also come up amid the contemporary situation related to the changing situation in Myanmar.

According to diplomatic sources, several issues related to bilateral relations will usually get priority at the Yunus-Biden meeting. The issue of post-5 August India-Bangladesh relations may also arise, but how much space the issue of a third country will get in such a brief meeting is hard to guess.

Initiatives undertaken by the interim government on reform processes will be highlighted at the bilateral meeting of the two top leaders. Dr Yunus will request Biden for all-out cooperation from the US in Bangladesh's reform initatives. Besides, Bangladesh may raise the issue of reinstating the generalized system of preferences (GSP) facility for the US market, as well as the issue related to ensuring international standards in Bangladesh’s labour sector in order to boost trade and investment with the US.

From the US side, issues related to providing all-out economic cooperation to Bangladesh will get importance. Besides, Dhaka may receive Washington’s commitments on cooperation for reform and good governance to law enforcement agencies.

Wishing anonymity, several senior diplomats of the US told this correspondent the meeting of Bangladesh’s interim government head with the US president by breaking tradition is very important symbolically. Though it is brief, the meeting of the two leaders gives the message that the White House is ready to give all-out cooperation to the Bangladesh administration. Since the meeting is short, many issues might not be discussed in detail.

However, Dr Yunus’ talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and USAID Administrator Samantha Power will be very important. These two talks may outline the roadmap in the fields of cooperation between both countries.

This correspondent spoke to five Bangladeshi diplomats who have worked or are working in New York. They said the US president usually arrives in New York on the morning of the day to address the UN session and deliver his speeches. US presidents then host a reception in honour of the state and government heads participating in the US session. However, it is very rare that the US president holds bilateral meetings with the top leader of any country on the sidelines of the UNGA session.

A meeting between Foreign Affairs Adviser to the interim government Md Touhid Hossain and Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was scheduled to be held on the sidelines of the UNGA session at the UN Headquarters in New York at 7:30 pm on Monday local time.

The Dhaka-Delhi bilateral relations felt a strain after former prime minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled to India in the face of a student-people movement on 5 August. Since then, this was the first high-level meeting between the two countries.