PM deputes Sushma to allay Dhaka's Rohingya concerns

September 21, 2017 11:01

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had specifically asked Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj to use the personal camaraderie she shares with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to try and assuage Bangladesh's concerns over the Rohingya crisis, Charu Sudan Kasturi reports in The Telegraph, Kolkata, quoting senior officials.

The minister 'is using tools of old-school diplomacy -- late-night phone calls, unannounced meetings and shows of support -- to placate Bangladesh that has been unhappy with New Delhi's public reluctance to criticise Myanmar over the Rohingya crisis,' he reports.

Swaraj had telephoned Hasina on September 15, hours after her ministry had announced Operation Insaniyat -- a relief programme meant to supply seven million kilos of food and thousands of mosquito nets to Bangladesh for the refugees. Bangladesh is currently hosting over 400,000 Rohingya refugees, Charu Sudan Kasturi reports.

She even took the same Etihad Airways flight that ferried Hasina from Abu Dhabi to New York for the UN General Assembly, and the two leaders had a brief conversation on the plane. The two leaders met again in New York on Monday, and Swaraj is now expected to visit Dhaka next month for bilateral talks, he writes.

Bangladesh is the worst hit by the Rohingya refugee influx and recently conveyed to New Delhi to alter its stand towards Myanmar and impress upon it the need to control the violence against the Rohingyas. Soon after, India for the first time called for 'restraint and maturity' on the part of Myanmar's security forces.

You can read more of Charu Sudan Kasturi's report here.

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