Former US diplomat explains Trump's 'I'll leave Bangladesh to Modi' comment

US President Donald Trump has sparked a discussion with his comment "I'll leave Bangladesh to the prime minister (Modi)" made while responding to a question regarding the regime change in Bangladesh during a meeting with Narendra Modi at the White House in Washington, DC yesterday (13 February).

"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," Jon F Danilowicz, a retired diplomat of the US Department of State and a former deputy secretary at the US Embassy in Bangladesh, said regarding Trump's comment.

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."

Talking to The Business Standard on the topic today (14 February), Danilowicz said, "During their meeting, PM Modi raised concerns and shared his views about Bangladesh with President Trump. Publicly, President Trump declined to talk about Bangladesh and the issue did not feature in the joint statement."

"On balance, those who feared that Modi would convince Trump to take a strong public stance critical of Bangladesh's interim government can breathe a sigh of relief.

"This, coupled with the Yunus-Musk call and the earlier release of the UN OHCHR report on the July revolution, adds up to a pretty good week on the international front for the interim government," he said.

"It is hard to see where the Awami League and its allies go from here," Danilowicz added.

He also said, "The real work for CA Yunus and colleagues is at home, where there is an increasingly urgent need to reach a consensus on the overall reform package and timing of elections.

"The release of the UN report will also likely accelerate a decision on whether or not to ban the Awami League."

Trump denies US deep state role in Bangladesh regime change, passes question to Modi

There has been a whirlwind of reports on Indian media with headlines of the likes of "Trump leaves Bangladesh to Modi" after the US president made the remark.

Before the key meeting between Modi and the US president, a journalist had asked for Trump's opinion on the Bangladesh issue, saying it was evident that the US deep state was involved in the regime change in Bangladesh during the Biden administration and the appointment of Prof Muhammad Yunus as the chief adviser of Bangladesh.

In response, Trump said, "Well, there was no role for our deep state. This is something that the prime minister [Modi] has been working on for a long time and has been worked on for hundreds of years frankly. I've been reading about it."

"But I will leave Bangladesh to the prime minister [Modi to address]," he said, looking at the Indian premier sitting beside him to respond.

Modi, however, avoided addressing the issue and did not say anything about Bangladesh.

Danilowicz in a separate post on X further explained, "One interpretation is that Trump washed his hands of Bangladesh and said that he would 'leave it' to Prime Minster Modi, implying that India would have carte blanche to deal with its neighbour as it saw fit.

"Another interpretation is that Trump either didn't understand the reporter's question or didn't have anything to say, so gave Modi the opportunity to answer--which he failed to do."

"Trump also did not take the bait from an Indian reporter who clearly wanted him to attack USAID, Soros, and the 'deep state'," said Danilowicz.

The former diplomat also said that despite whichever interpretation one chooses to believe, it is hard to escape the conclusion that Bangladesh did not really feature in the bilateral discussions.