India slams Yunus with coastline retort

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar today countered Bangladesh Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus over his recent remarks in China where he claimed India’s Northeast was landlocked and Dhaka was the only guardian of the Indian Ocean.

Dismissing the assertion while speaking at the 20th BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting in Thailand where Bangladeshi representatives were also present, Jaishankar said cooperation was an integrated outlook and not one subject to cherry-picking.

“We have the longest coastline in the Bay of Bengal, spanning almost 6,500 km. India shares borders not only with the five BIMSTEC members, connecting most of them, but also provides much of the interface between the Indian subcontinent and the ASEAN grouping,” the minister said.

India’s north-eastern region was emerging as a connectivity hub for the BIMSTEC members, having in place a myriad network of roads, railways, waterways grids and pipelines, he said.

The minister said countries should work together on all important issues, rather than picking only the ones that suited their interests.

During his China visit, Yunus had urged Beijing to extend its economic influence to Bangladesh, controversially mentioning India’s north-eastern states. “The seven eastern states of India are called the seven sisters. They are a landlocked region and have no way to reach out to the Indian Ocean,” he had said.

Calling Bangladesh as the “only guardian of the Indian Ocean” in the region, Yunus had said this could be a huge opportunity and could be an extension of the Chinese economy.