WASHINGTON, Feb 15: President Trump rejected the possibility of US deep state involvement in Bangladesh's regime change and left the question relating to Bangladesh for Prime Minister Modi of India to answer.
The two leaders sat in question-answer session at the White House Oval office before their key meeting.
One journalist asked President Trump, in the last part of his three-part question, "And Mr President, what would you like to say about the Bangladesh issue because we saw, and it is evident, how the deep state of US was involved in regime change under during the Biden administration. Then Muhammad Yunus met Junior Soros also. What is your point of view about the Bangalis?"
President Trump began to answer before PM Modi could answer the first two parts relating to India's relations with US in the context of its relations with Russia, and India's message of peace in the context of the Russia-Ukraine war.
The US president rejected any US deep state involvement but did not go any further into the topic and left it for PM Modi to answer. "Well, there was no role for our deep state. This is something that the prime minister has been working on for a long time and has worked on for hundreds of years, frankly. I have been reading about it. But I will leave Bangladesh to the prime minister."
PM Modi went on to answer questions about the Russia and Ukraine war praising President Trump's initiatives and stressing India's message of peace. He, however, did not address the Bangladesh issue.
Indian Express adds that later, while replying to questions, the Indian foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, said, "On what we make of the statement on Bangladesh… this was a subject that was discussed between the two leaders. And the prime minister [Modi] shared his views and, indeed, his concerns with regard to recent developments in Bangladesh and how India sees the situation."
"I think we hope that the situation in Bangladesh will also move forward in a direction where we can pursue relations in a constructive and stable way with them. But there are concerns about that situation. And the prime minister [Modi] shared those views with President Trump," Misri said.
Meanwhile, regarding Trump's comment, Jon F Danilowicz, a retired diplomat of the US Department of State and a former deputy secretary at the US Embassy in Bangladesh said, "The way I heard it was that Trump didn't want to comment on Bangladesh so he was leaving it to Modi to do so". He made the remark while commenting on a post by South Asia affairs expert Michael Kugelman made on social media platform X.
Kugelman, who is the director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC, said, "I definitely interpret it as him [Trump] saying he would let Modi comment on the question, maybe because he didn't feel like commenting on something that he doesn't know much about." —AGENCIES
