Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the Bangladesh leader’s comments have forced the administration to develop more robust railway and road networks both underneath and around the Chicken’s Neck corridor.
In a sharp rebuttal to Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus – who described India’s Northeast as “landlocked” and positioned Bangladesh as the “guardian of ocean access” for the region, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar today highlighted the role of India’s cast 6,500-km coastline and its geographical linkages with five Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) members.
“India shares borders not only with five BIMSTEC members, connects most of them, but also provides much of the interface between the Indian sub-continent and ASEAN. Our North-Eastern region in particular is emerging as a connectivity hub for the BIMSTEC, with a myriad network of roads, railways, waterways, grids and pipelines,” Jaishankar said in a statement.
Muhammad Yunus, during his recent to China, had urged Beijing to extend its economic influence to Bangladesh, controversially mentioning that India’s northeastern states being “landlocked” and had “no way to reach out to the ocean”.
During Yunus’s four-day visit, Bangladesh signed nine agreements with China and secured a $2.1 billion financial package.
“We are conscious that our cooperation and facilitation are an essential prerequisite for the smooth flow of goods, services and people in this larger geography. Keeping this geo-strategic factor in mind, we have devoted increasing energies and attention to the strengthening of BIMSTEC in the last decade. We also believe that cooperation is an integrated outlook, not one subject to cherry-picking,” Jaishankar added.
Yunus’ remarks were met with sharp reactions in India, particularly in the Northeast.
Calling Yunus’s remarks offensive, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the Bangladesh leader’s comments have forced the administration to develop more robust railway and road networks both underneath and around the Chicken’s Neck corridor. “Though this may pose significant engineering challenges, it is achievable with determination and innovation. Such provocative statements by Md Younis must not be taken lightly, as they reflect deeper strategic considerations and longstanding agendas,” he said.
Former Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh accused Bangladesh’s interim government of treating India’s Northeast as a “strategic pawn” and warned Yunus against making “reckless comments” about India’s sovereignty.
