‘Cooperation isn’t cherry-picking’: Jaishankar jibe at Yunus over Northeast ‘landlocked’ claim

“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,” he said, adding, “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.”

India is aware of its special responsibility in regard to BIMSTEC, he said, as it has the longest coastline in the Bay of Bengal, of almost 6,500 km, and India shares borders not only with five BIMSTEC members and connects most of them, but also provides much of the interface between the Indian sub-continent and ASEAN.

Last week, pitching for “extension of the Chinese economy”, Prof Yunus, during his four-day visit to China last week, had said, “Seven states of India, eastern part of India, called seven sisters… they are landlocked country, landlocked region of India. They have no way to reach out to the ocean.”

“We are the only guardian of the ocean for all this region. So this opens up a huge possibility. So this could be an extension of the Chinese economy. Build things, produce things, market things, bring things to China, bring it out to the whole rest of the world,” he had said.

For India, access to and from the Northeast states — through the ‘Chicken’s Neck’ corridor in north Bengal — has been a challenge, economically and strategically. Over the last decade-and-a-half, this formed an important element of Delhi’s engagement with Dhaka as it worked with the previous government led by former PM Sheikh Hasina on ways to transit through Bangladesh.

With Yunus’s comments, Dhaka is seen as projecting its leverage on access to Northeast India, a concern for Delhi. His bid to project Beijing as the new partner adds a layer of complexity to the already-fraught India-Bangladesh ties. Jaishankar’s response frames the context that India is the regional hub for cooperation.