Ringfencing India? After Pakistan and Afghanistan, now China holds a tri‑nation meet with Bangladesh. What it means
China recently hosted Bangladesh and Pakistan for talks in Kunming. The meeting aimed to boost cooperation in trade and connectivity. A working group will explore joint projects. This follows a similar China-Pakistan-Afghanistan meeting. India is concerned about China's growing influence in the region. Security ties between Bangladesh, Pakistan, and China are also under scrutiny.
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Why China, Bangladesh, Pak meeting matters for New Delhi
What Pakistan, China, Bangladesh agreed in the meet
Focus area Planned cooperation Economy & trade Joint projects in industry, digital economy and maritime logistics Connectivity Exploration of Belt and Road links—potentially an eastward spur of CPEC People's welfare Agriculture, climate action, health, education and youth exchanges Follow‑up A working group to translate the Kunming understandings into pilot projects
Bangladesh's quiet pivot towards Pak, China
Former Bangladesh military intelligence chief end 12-day China trip
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Meeting comes after China, Afghanistan, Pakistan meet last month
China on Thursday brought Bangladesh and Pakistan together for an inaugural trilateral dialogue in Kunming, barely a month after hosting a similar meeting with Pakistan and Afghanistan. The closed‑door talks, led by Chinese Vice‑Foreign Minister Sun Weidong, agreed to set up a working group for 'good‑neighbourly, equal and mutually trusted' cooperation, signalling Beijing's intent to knit India's neighbours more tightly into its strategic orbit.For India, the move feeds a long‑running concern that China is cultivating a ring of friendly states along the subcontinent's periphery. New Delhi already objects to the China‑Pakistan Economic Corridor running through Pakistan‑occupied Kashmir. Now, with Bangladesh's interim leadership warming to Beijing—and exploring closer ties with Islamabad—the prospect of a three‑way framework on trade, infrastructure and security raises fresh questions about India's strategic space.Bangladesh's Acting Foreign Secretary Ruhul Alam Siddique joined Sun at Kunming, while Foreign Secretary‑designate Amna Baloch represented Pakistan via video. The gathering came soon after Dhaka's Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus publicly asked Beijing for economic help and discreetly revived contact with Islamabad—moves that have already drawn attention in New Delhi.In another development that has raised red flags within India's security establishment, Major General (Retd) Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury, former Bangladesh military intelligence chief and a convicted figure in the 2004 Chittagong arms smuggling case, reportedly concluded a 12-day trip to Guangzhou, China, on June 18. His visit coincided with that of Bangladesh's interim National Security Adviser Dr Khalilur Rahman, who reportedly sought Beijing's help to arrange a backchannel meeting with Pakistan's ISI chief. Indian agencies view this synchronised movement of high-level security actors—linked to past anti-India plots—as a signal of a deeper and potentially coordinated security alignment between Beijing, Islamabad, and Dhaka.Kunming follows a May meeting in which China, Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to extend CPEC into Afghan territory. India had protested that any third‑country role in CPEC infringes on its sovereignty. The new Bangladesh‑Pakistan‑China line‑up suggests Beijing is applying the same template to India's eastern flank.While Thursday's statements highlighted 'true multilateralism' and insisted the talks were 'not directed at any third party', the meeting comes at a time of heightened tensions in South Asia:India's May strikes on terror camps in Pakistan and PoK, which prompted Beijing's vocal support for Islamabad.82 per cent of Islamabad's defence imports already come from China.Indian agencies are probing reports that Dhaka's interim National Security Adviser has sought a Beijing‑brokered meeting with Pakistan's ISI chief.
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