Mohammad Yunus, the interim chief adviser of Bangladesh, is trying to change geography. He has stirred some discord with his remarks concerning the region India calls the “Seven Sisters.” In March 2025, during a visit to China, he referred to these states as ‘landlocked,’ reliant on Bangladesh for maritime trade, and called Bangladesh the ‘only guardian of the ocean’ for them.
Things got hotter when retired Major General ALM Fazlur Rahman from the Bangladesh Rifles, regarded as a close associate of Yunus, suggested that if India were to engage in all-out conflict with Pakistan, then Bangladesh, along with China, should consider ‘taking control’ of the northeastern Indian states.
This absurd statement sparked intense outrage from Indian politicians and the media. To retreat from the fire, he later proposed a quadrilateral integrated economic region to focus on collaboration for the development of hydropower, healthcare, roads, and other infrastructure with Bhutan, Nepal, and the northeastern parts of India.
Indian observers, however, interpreted this as an attempt to erase reality for falsely improving relations, which deepens the already precarious environment for diplomacy.
As a result of Rahman’s remarks, the rest of the Bangladeshi interim government completely disassociated from him. He asserts that these are his personal views and not the position of any government policy.