Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus spoke at an event titled "A Conversation with Bangladesh's Chief Adviser Dr Muhammad Yunus" hosted by Asia Society in the USA on Wednesday. Photo: CA Press Wing

NEW YORK, Sept 25, 2025 (BSS) - Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus has focused on the importance of SAARC to enhance regional cooperation, saying SAARC is a family of very close family members.

The whole idea of SAARC was born in Bangladesh, which promoted this idea in all the South Asian countries, he said while speaking at an event hosted by Asia Society here in the USA on Wednesday.

The event titled "A Conversation with Bangladesh's Chief Adviser Dr Muhammad Yunus" was moderated by Kyung wha Kang, President and Chief Executive Officer of Asia Society.

Prof Yunus said they wanted to bring this together so that young people can get in touch with each other, all regions, not just one country, all the countries in South Asia.

He said it is important that they can visit each other, make friendship with each other, study in universities, colleges, wherever they are, they go do business in each other's countries.

"That was the whole idea. Our history gives us the opportunity to make that happen, but somehow it didn't fit into the politics of some one country, so we have to stop that. We feel very sorry for that. We want to make sure that we open it up and bring people together. That is the only way to solve our issues," the Chief Adviser said. 

"Look, Bangladesh economy is defined by the boundaries of Bangladesh. But while we remain ourselves within the boundaries of Bangladesh, this is a very narrow way of looking at yourself," he said.

"I said, why don't you look at the neighbors, like Nepal, Bhutan, and also the seven states of India. In the eastern part of Bangladesh, there are seven states who don't have any access to the ocean. These are landlocked regions," he added.

Prof Yunus said the current Chair of ASEAN is Malaysia and it is not easy to get everybody's yes right away, particularly Myanmar, which has a problem with the Rohingyas.

"So they may not come forward, but we'll work on it. We don't see this will begin permanent trouble between Myanmar and Bangladesh. We don't have to have that. So we have to resolve all these issues," he said.

He said Rohingyas could go back to Myanmar, to their homes, businesses and their professions.

The Chief Adviser said they will have a good relationship with Myanmar. "Having this kind of conflict with each other doesn't help anybody. So, we have to resolve that."

He said Bangladesh can become an informal member of ASEAN and there is a provision there.

"We can do that. ASEAN would be a good place to go and you can build it up regional harmony and regional interconnectivity," Prof Yunus said.

He mentioned the problems Bangladesh faces with India right now because they "did not like" what the students have done in Bangladesh.

India is hosting former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Hasina who created all these problems and killed the young people, he said. 

"And that creates a lot of tension between India and Bangladesh. Also lots of fake news are coming from the other side. This is a very bad thing," Prof Yunus said.

He flagged the fake news coming from India that claimed these are the Talibans and they have been trained. "They even said, I'm a Taliban too. I don't have the beard. I just left it home," he joked.

About the regional economy, the Chief Adviser said, "You have to go through Bangladesh. You can invest in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is going to invest in your territory. That's what the whole idea of the SAARC."