Bangladesh courts China as India ties turn frosty

Bangladeshi leader Muhammad Yunus will travel to Beijing on a diplomatic goodwill visit this month as frosty relations with neighbouring 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 uprising.

India was the biggest benefactor of Hasina's government and her ouster sent cross-border relations into a tailspin.

That has prompted the caretaker government helmed by Yunus to seek greater ties with Beijing, New Delhi's chief rival for power and influence in the Asian subcontinent.

"Bangladesh aims to elevate this bilateral relationship to new heights," Yunus's media secretary Shafiqul Alam told reporters on Sunday in a briefing on next week's visit.

"They will discuss a wide range of issues concerning both countries."

Yunus is slated to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during the March 26-29 visit.

He will also receive an honorary doctorate from Peking University and meet several Chinese firms to explore investment opportunities.

"Bangladesh aspires to become a manufacturing hub and is keen to partner with China in this endeavour," Alam said.

Diplomatic talks are also expected to touch on Bangladesh's immense population of Rohingya refugees, most of whom fled a violent military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar in 2017.

China 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's unwillingness to have them returned.

Interim Bangladeshi foreign minister Touhid Hossain visited China in January in what was his first official trip abroad.

China's ambassador in Dhaka, Yao Wen, said last month that Beijing "firmly supports Bangladesh in upholding its national independence, sovereignty, and dignity".

(AFP)