Bangladesh keen to establish relations with Pakistan by forgetting the past: Dr. Mohammad Yunus

POBNEWS24, Dhaka, April 17, 2025 : Bangladesh is keen to establish good diplomatic relations with Pakistan by forgetting the past. For this purpose, Principal Advisor Professor Muhammad Yunus has emphasized on strengthening relations with Pakistan by increasing mutual cooperation and exploring the possibilities of trade and commerce. He made this call when Pakistani Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch met the Principal Advisor in Jamuna on Thursday (April 17). Amna Baloch is visiting Bangladesh as the first Pakistani Foreign Secretary in 15 years.
At this time, the Principal Advisor said, there are some obstacles. We have to find ways to overcome these and move forward.
At this time, Amna Baloch, acknowledging the past issues, said, Bangladesh and Pakistan must find ways to utilize the potential between the two countries.
Baloch also said, we have a huge inter-market potential in our own hands and we should use it. We cannot ‘miss the bus’ every time.
The Pakistani bureaucrat also mentioned the need for regular mutual communication between the private sectors of the two countries and organizing visits between the two countries at all levels.
In January 2025, a delegation of the Pakistani businessmen’s organization FPCCI visited Bangladesh and signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bangladesh businessmen’s organization FBCCI.
The Pakistani foreign secretary expressed hope that the upcoming visit of the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar in late April would further strengthen the relations between the two countries.
At the time, the chief advisor said that he always preferred close relations with neighboring countries, including Pakistan, within the framework of SAARC.
He said that Bangladesh and Pakistan should exchange more youth and cultural programs between the two countries to increase people-to-people ties. We were missing each other for a long time as our relations became frosty. We have to overcome the obstacles.
The Chief Advisor recalled his meetings with Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in Cairo on the sidelines of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly in September 2024 and the D-8 Summit in December 2024, saying that these played an important role in the progress of bilateral relations.
He said that Bangladesh and Pakistan will continue to work closely in multilateral and regional forums like SAARC, OIC and D-8.
Senior Secretary for SDGs Lamia Morshed and Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh Syed Ahmed Maruf were present at the time.
On the other hand, there are several unresolved issues between Bangladesh and Pakistan after the war of independence with the Pakistani occupying forces in 1971, including apology, compensation, sharing of assets, and repatriation of stranded Pakistanis. Bangladesh believes that now is the right time to resolve these unresolved issues.
After the Foreign Secretary-level meeting of Bangladesh and Pakistan on Thursday, Foreign Secretary Md. Jasim Uddin said this at a press conference.
The Foreign Secretary said, ‘We have raised the issue – from the perspective of fairness and propriety. The second point is, we have told the Pakistani delegation that the current state of relations between Bangladesh and Pakistan due to recent high-level contacts and our cooperation in various fields, to put it on a solid foundation, we urgently need to resolve our unresolved issues. We used a word in the meeting – solid foundation. We said, to put it on a solid foundation, these issues should be resolved.
The Foreign Secretary also said, ‘We are trying to normalize the stagnant relations and we are doing it completely keeping our national interests in mind.’
In the meeting, Bangladesh raised the issue of the Bangladeshi genocide at the hands of the Pakistani army in 1971.
The Foreign Secretary said, ‘We have raised our issue and the job of diplomacy is to raise the issue and move forward with it. The issue here is not that they did not want to keep it in the discussion after we raised the issue. They said that they want to continue the discussion on it in the future. So, I will prepare for the future discussion in the context of this discussion.
Bangladesh has sought compensation of $4.52 billion in assets in 1971.
The Foreign Secretary said, “The estimate we have is $4 billion according to the former Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission. Another estimate says $4.32 billion. We mentioned the latter figure in today’s discussion. Besides, in the terrible cyclone that occurred in November 1970, various foreign countries and agencies donated an amount equivalent to $200 million. We have also sought a share of that in this meeting.”
The issue of repatriating stranded Pakistanis has been discussed at various times. In this regard, he said, “So far, 126,941 stranded Pakistani citizens have returned there. There are 324,147 left, who are living in 79 camps in 14 districts.”