Breaking the tradition of Nepalese prime ministers visiting India first, Nepal’s Prime minister KP Sharma Oli chose to first visit Beijing, where he signed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) agreement defining the framework of Chinese funding and projects to be executed in Nepal. Kathmandu has not shared the details. No matter how much the world harps on China’s debt trap policy, it makes no difference to politicians, as also witnessed in India’s immediate neighbourhood. China funded Nepal’s controversial Pokhran airport project by loaning more than $200 million.
Nepal has contracted a Chinese company to print Nepalese currency notes with maps of Nepal showing some areas of India as Nepal’s territory. Also, Oli was to propose an expressway connecting China with India through Nepal (https://raksha-anirveda.com/crimson-geh-encircles-india/). Our media now reports Oli refusing China’s proposal for the Panchen Lama visiting Nepal. It is not possible as this was not discussed when Oli was in China. This news is an obvious ploy (China’s suggestion?) to show Nepal has not regressed fully into China’s strategic sphere whereas the opposite is true. Same goes for the spin-doctoring that Pakistan has told China they can have Gwadar only in exchange to giving Pakistan second-strike capability. Do we really think Pakistan or its military can dictate terms to China?
![Nepal China- Xi President Xi Jinping met with Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on 3 December 2024. [photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, People's Republic of China]](https://www.thestrategicperspective.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Nepal-China-Xi-600x433.jpg)
On December 3, 2024, over 100 homes and businesses belonging to Hindus in the Sunamganj district were attacked, looted, and vandalized. The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council condemned these acts, calling for immediate action against the perpetrators, emphasizing the need for exemplary punishment. India condemned the violence against Hindu temples deplorable. Urging Bangladesh to protect Hindus and all minorities, especially during significant religious festivals.
Same day (December 3) news emerged of a 14-member team of leaders of Bangladesh's Islamist parties, led by Jamaat-e-Islami's Syed Abdullah Mohammad Taher visiting China on Beijing's invitation. In November 2024, Chinese ambassador to Bangladesh Yao Wen hosted a reception for the Islamist parties in Dhaka, where he said, "Regardless of changes in domestic or regional circumstances, the China-Bangladesh relationship has remained steadfast, progressing steadily in the right direction."
On December 9, 2024, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri held delegation-level talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart, Mohammad Jashim Uddin, in Dhaka. Misri also met Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus and Foreign Advisor Mohammad Touhid Hossain. While the dialogue aimed to address bilateral relations and broader implications of recent events for regional stability, Misri raised the human rights violations, attacks on minorities and religious places. However, Mohammad Jashim Uddin publicly asked India not to interfere in Bangladesh’s internal affairs by commenting on the persecution of minorities.
Three days before Misri’s visit to Dhaka, Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) personnel crossed into Indian Territory to stop construction of a temple. Details of the incident were not made public but there were questions why the BSF didn’t fire warning shots at them. One view is that the incident was downplayed to not vitiate the atmosphere during Misri’s visit. However, the BGB incursion possibly was a deliberate jihadi signal to India. Perhaps it may have been better if NSA Ajit Doval went to Bangladesh to convey a stern message.
Muhammad Yunus kept saying that the allegations of minority attacks in Bangladesh were more of propaganda. In fact, he even blamed Meta for playing up India’s protests for attacks on Hindus. However, when some western nations also called out human rights violations, Bangladesh sheepishly admitted to 88 cases of attacks on minorities. Though no details were given. This indicates the horrendous extent of the genocide against minorities; these not being crimes by individuals but hordes of marauding (mullah-military supported gangs indulging in mass rapes, killings/hangings and burnings.

Significance of the China-Bangladesh Islamists parties in Beijing should not be lost. Syed Abdullah Mohammad Taher is an anti-India hardliner. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) rule in Bangladesh was always demonstratively pro-China and Pakistan. The BNP won the 1979 and 1981 presidential elections and general elections in 1991, 1996 and 2001 general elections. Ziaur Rahman was recruited by CIA immediately post liberation of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman governments under the semi-presidential system and the parliamentary republics were led by Khaleda Zia serving as prime minister.
Unlike India putting all eggs in the Awami League basket, China maintained relations with both Awami League and the BNP irrespective of who ruled Bangladesh. A Chinese naval flotilla was the first to visit Bangladesh after the Hasina government was violently replaced. China has delivered arms and explosives (including some fissile material?) to Bangladesh. China’s invite to Bangladesh's Islamist parties was obviously to chalk out the future course of action, including Pakistan’s participation in the regional power game.
Pakistan has been supplying arms, ammunition and explosives to Bangladesh on Dhaka’s request. Yunus met Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in New York and called for the revival of SAARC. But Bangladesh-Pakistan relations picked up pace after Bangladesh Islamists parties visited Beijing. Bangladesh has removed visa restriction for Pakistani nationals, which will facilitate free movement and coordination of terrorists/terrorist leaders.
Bangladesh has now cancelled the decision by the Hasina administration permitting Indian telecom operators to use Bangladesh to Akhaura border, between India and Bangladesh in Tripura, as a transit route from Singapore to connect the region with Southeast Asia via Bharti Airtel’s network, enabling improved bandwidth. Bangladesh has operationalized the Dhaka-Karachi Sea Link and has decided to cut imports of essential food items from India, even purchasing sugar from Pakistan. Bangladesh imported $565 million worth sugar from India in 2021-2022 and $353.46 million worth in 2023.
Installing the Yunus-led Interim Government in Bangladesh was engineered by the US. The POTUS Joe Biden publicly hugging Yunus during the latter’s visit to the US, followed by his reception organized by former president Bill Clinton leaves no doubt. Moreover, an FBI tram visited Bangladesh within a week of the regime change. Then came the US tour of Bangladesh Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman, followed by the US-Bangladesh bilateral defence dialogue. Bangladesh has approached the US for purchasing a squadron of F-16 fighter aircraft
Report: Bangladesh Air Force chief has approached the US Department of Defence (DSCA) for the purchase of a squadron of F-16V (Block 72) for BAF.
— WLVN (@TheLegateIN) December 15, 2024
Concurrently, there is news of Bangladesh wanting to purchase China’s Chengdu J-19C multirole fighter jets. Bangladesh has now deployed Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones close to its border with India. These drones, also procured by Pakistan and Maldive also, were used against Russia by Ukraine, till Moscow found an effective antidote. Yunus has recently said that elections in Bangladesh may be held in late 2025 or in 2026, but he is unlikely. On taking control of Myanmar, the military junta had also said elections would take place within one year - but no one gives up power.
In Myanmar, the Arakan Army, which has secured the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, says jihadi groups are carrying out atrocities against Buddhists, Hindus on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border. These jihadis include Rohingya groups especially the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) who support Myanmar’s military junta. China has been arming bott the military junta and the groups fighting the military regime. Over the years, Chinese officials have been visiting Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh and offering them money. What are we doing about Rohingya’s occupying land in the Siliguri Corridor, including along the railway lines?
Uyghur fighters who helped the regime change in Syria recently have vowed to take the fight to China. But this is not the first time that the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) has threatened Beijing and this needs to be viewed in the backdrop of the radical Islam vis-a-vis personal/national interests. China’s inhuman treatment of Uighurs is om record including demolishing masjids and building public toilets at the same spots. Yet, none of the Islamist parties in Bangladesh have raised any voices, same as Pakistan. The crown prince of Saudi Arabia also refrained from doing so during his visit to China.
Connecting the dots leaves little doubt that Bangladesh is where the strategic interests of the US and China presently coalesce albeit with different aims. The American plot to destabilize South Asia and pressure (or destabilize) India to the maximum extent, forcing it deeper into the US camp. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken confirmed sending US$10,000,000 to Taliban.
JUST IN: 🇺🇸 Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirms $10,000,000 in US taxpayer funds has been sent to the Taliban. pic.twitter.com/SpQbJqTDhA
— BRICS News (@BRICSinfo) December 11, 2024
Now there are inputs that Taliban would be travelling to Nepal, via India, to coordinate and train radical Islamists in Nepal’s Muslim population of over 12.9 lakh in conjunction with Pakistan’s ISI ensconced in Nepal.
China has plenty of experience in handling Islamic radicals including the Taliban. Beijing is also sanguine that Ghazwa-e-Hind targets India (not China), which has considerable support of multiple international/regional terrorist organizations, as well as countries. China will capitalize on the regime change in Bangladesh and belligerency of the Yunus-led government, with full support of Pakistan. Chinese scholars have said in the past that China can dismember India’s northeast. This was before we presented the self-inflicted wound in the border state of Manipur, which continues to bleed (https://www.thestrategicperspective.org/op-eds/visual-composer-1657/). The US may help us but don’t we know at what cost?
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar recently called for a new foreign policy aligned with ‘Viksit Bharat’ but how have we landed up in this situation in the first place? Why are we so naïve to open up Chinese investments in sectors it can hold India to ransom? Do we have the wisdom to see through China’s long-term plans amid the self-created euphoria over Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai again?