Bangladesh and Pakistan resume talks after 15 years, seek to mend strained ties

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Foreign ministry officials from Bangladesh's interim government and Pakistan resumed talks on Thursday after a 15-year gap, as the two South Asian Muslim-majority nations attempted to ease strained relations.

Under former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August in a students-led mass uprising, Bangladesh expanded relations with neighboring India in every sector.

But ties with India have become increasingly tense. Bangladesh’s interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, has criticized India for sheltering Hasina in the country and sought her extradition without any positive response from India.

Yunus has meanwhile sought to improve relations with Pakistan, India's rival. In recent months he met Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif several times, and a high-level Bangladeshi military delegation made a rare visit to Pakistan in January and held talks with Pakistan’s army chief General Asim Munir. In February, Bangladesh's navy took part in a multinational maritime exercise organized by Pakistan off the Karachi coast.

After Hasina’s exit, Bangladesh and Pakistan resumed direct trading for the first time in years. Direct flights between the countries are expected to resume soon and visa procedures have been eased while India stopped visas for Bangladeshis, except for medical emergencies.

Earlier this month, India cancelled a transshipment facility that allowed Bangladesh to export its primarily garment products to third countries using Indian airports and other Indian infrastructure.

The move is expected to impact Bangladesh’s roughly $39 billion annual readymade garment exports by increasing trade costs with the European Union, Nepal, Bhutan, and Myanmar. Bangladesh is the world's second largest garment producer after China.

After Thursday's talks in Dhaka between Bangladesh’s Foreign Secretary Jashim Uddin and his Pakistani counterpart, Uddin said Bangladesh raised historically “unsettled issues” with Pakistan, including a formal public apology for atrocities allegedly committed by Pakistani troops in 1971 during Bangladesh's war of independence.

India helped Bangladesh win independence through a nine-month war against then West Pakistan, now Pakistan. Hasina’s Awami League party regularly criticizes Pakistan for alleged atrocities during the war, when Bangladesh says about 3 million people were killed and about 200,000 women were raped by Pakistani soldiers. Pakistan rejects the claims and has never officially apologized.

Local media reported earlier that Yunus' government was preparing to formally raise its demand for $4.52 billion in financial compensation from Pakistan.

Uddin said the issue of the compensation was raised in Thursday’s meeting.

“These issues need to be resolved for having a solid foundation of our relations,” Uddin said Thursday. The two sides also discussed expansion of trade and commerce and increasing cooperation in agriculture and other sectors, he added.

Yunus’ office said in a statement late Thursday that he held a separate meeting with the Pakistani foreign secretary and emphasized “strengthening ties with Pakistan to boost mutual cooperation and explore trade and business potentials.”

“There are certain hurdles. We have to find ways to overcome those and move forward,” Yunus told Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch.

The last such consultation between the two countries was held in Islamabad in 2010 after Hasina came to power in a 2008 election with a landslide victory.

Baloch said Bangladesh and Pakistan must find ways to “harness the potentials between the two countries," the statement said.