After granting access of Chittagong Port to Pakistan, anti-India Yunus takes another big decision to ….

This will be the first time that a Pakistani cargo ship will reach Bangladesh since the 1971 war.

India Bangladesh trade: Muhammad Yunus, the Chief Adviser of the Interim Government of Bangladesh since 8 August 2024, has opened the doors of Bangladesh for Pakistan. In this connection, since 1971 when Bangladesh was formed after a bloody armed battle with Pakistan, this will be the first time that a Pakistani cargo ship will reach the strategic Mongla port of the country. This cargo ship with Pakistani flag is said to have left Karachi’s Qasim port a few days ago with 25 thousand tons of rice and likely to anchor at the Chittagong port within a few days.

Mongla is the largest port of Bangladesh.

After unloading 60% of rice there, the vessel with the remaining quantity of rice will move towards Mongla, said reports adding that the arrival of the Pakistani ship at Mongla port is more important because last year itself India had won the right to operate it. It can be seen as a shrewd strategy by Dhaka and Islamabad to make merry over the work done by India to help and support erstwhile East Pakistan.

Lately, the Nobel Peace Prize winner (2006) Mohammad Yunus and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif have cozied up after decades of bitterness between the two neighbours of India.

In July 2024, India acquired the operating rights of a terminal at Mongla after India’s successful bids to manage foreign ports at Chabahar in Iran and Sittwe in Myanmar. It was seen as a strategic success for India to counter China’s growing maritime influence in the region, as China was also eyeing it.

A Government to Government (G2G) deal between Bangladesh and Pakistan was inked at the beginning of the last month to import 50 MT of Basmati rice through Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP). As per the deal, first consignment of the rice is on its way to Bangladesh and the second consignment is expected to come at the end of the current month, reports www.tbsnews.net.