Abdul Basit
The recent regime change in Bangladesh has triggered a Pakistan-Bangladesh rapprochement.
Since Muhammad Yunus took charge as leader of Bangladesh’s interim government on August 8, several high-level meetings have been held between Bangladesh and Pakistan, paving the way for new linkages and closer cooperation.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has met Yunus twice since the regime change in Dhaka — on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in the U.S. and the D-8 Summit in Egypt in September and December 2024, respectively. During the D-8 meeting, Yunus urged Sharif to settle the issues of 1971. “The issues have kept coming again and again. Let’s settle those issues for us to move forward. It would be nice to (settle issues) once and for all for the future generations,” Yunus said. Yunus was referring to a longstanding Bangladeshi demand for an official apology from Pakistan for the genocide committed during the 1971 war.
Pakistan has long maintained that the India-Pakistan-Bangladesh tripartite agreement of 1974 settled these issues. In Cairo, Sharif agreed to look into “other outstanding issues.”
Bilateral relations between Pakistan and Bangladesh have been troubled since the 1971 Liberation War, and particularly frosty during periods of Awami League rule in Bangladesh. Since the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on August 5 last year, relations have thawed. And following the Sharif-Yunus meetings, Pakistan and Bangladesh have moved swiftly to improve ties.
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