Bangladesh’s Yunus hopes US ties will strengthen despite Trump victory

DHAKA (Reuters) – Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus hopes ties with the U.S., the biggest buyer of Bangladeshi clothes, will strengthen despite strong criticism from President-elect Donald Trump on violence against minorities in the Muslim-majority nation.

“Foreign policies don’t usually change because of a change in the president,” Yunus told The Hindu newspaper, referring to Trump’s victory in this month’s U.S. presidential election.

“It’s a very good relationship that we have built over years with the U.S. Our hope is that it will be strengthened.”

Trump in a X post at the end of October said: “I strongly condemn the barbaric violence against Hindus, Christians, and other minorities who are getting attacked and looted by mobs in Bangladesh, which remains in a total state of chaos”.

Bangladesh’s neighbour and Hindu-majority India has strong cultural and business ties with Bangladesh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has also expressed concern over the spate of attacks on Hindus.

Protests in Bangladesh, which began in July as a student-led movement against public sector job quotas, escalated into some of the deadliest unrest since Bangladeshi independence in 1971, killing about 1,500 people, according to the interim government’s estimate.

Yunus was named head of the caretaker government that took charge of Bangladesh after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India in August amid violent protests seeking her ouster.

Nobel Peace Laureate Yunus said reports of atrocities against minority was propaganda.

Yunus said Hasina has continued her political activities from India and his caretaker government was taking legal steps to demand her extradition. India’s refusal could sour relations between the South Asian neighbours, Yunus added.

Calling India and Bangladesh twins who are “born to be together”, Yunus said he wants to meet Modi.

“Our dream is imagining a relationship like the European Union (with freedom of movement and trade). That’s the direction we want to go.”

(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai, editing by Michael Perry)