Biden joins Modi in expressing concern over situation in Bangladesh, seeking security for minorities

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and United States President Joe Biden on Monday “expressed shared concern over the situation” in Bangladesh, where a protest against reservation in public sector jobs led to a change of regime early this month, followed by persecution of Hindus and other minority communities.

 This is the first time India raised the situation in Bangladesh after the regime change in a leadership-level engagement with another nation. They stressed the need to ensure the safety of minority communities, especially the Hindus, in Bangladesh.

Modi also briefed Biden about his recent visit to Ukraine where he pledged India’s full support to dialogue and diplomacy for an early end of the East European nation’s conflict with Russia.

 Biden called Modi just two days after the prime minister returned from Kyiv after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He had visited Moscow last month and met Russian President Vladimir Putin. His visits to Moscow and Kyiv within a span of six weeks signalled New Delhi’s keenness to maintain the strategic balance between its decades-old relations with Russia and its ties with the US and the rest of the West.

 “Spoke to POTUS @JoeBiden on (the) phone today. We had a detailed exchange of views on various regional and global issues, including the situation in Ukraine. I reiterated India’s full support for (the) early return of peace and stability,” Modi posted on X after his phone call with the US president.

The prime minister and the US president expressed their “shared concern over the situation in Bangladesh”, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of External Affairs after the phone call. “They emphasised the restoration of law and order and ensuring the safety and security of the minorities, particularly Hindus, in Bangladesh.”

 Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government in Dhaka collapsed on August 5 in the wake of a mass agitation against the crackdown on the students and youths protesting against reservation in public sector jobs. Hasina flew to the Indian Air Force base at Hindon in the National Capital Region of India just hours before her official residence – Gana Bhavan – was stormed by hundreds of protesters.

 An interim government, led by microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus, who had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, was sworn in three days after Hasina’s Awami League government fell. The interim government has representatives of the Bangladesh National Party and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami. New Delhi has been worried about the attacks on the Hindus and other minority communities following the fall of the government led by Hasina.

Modi on Monday lauded Biden for his deep commitment to the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership, based on shared values of democracy, rule of law, and strong people-to-people ties. “The leaders reviewed the significant progress in bilateral relations and highlighted that India-US partnership is aimed at benefiting the people of both countries as well as the entire humanity,” said the MEA.