The bilateral meeting comes after Dhaka had requested a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC Summit to sort out differences, but Modi’s schedule in Thailand did not mention the requested meeting.

The two nations saw tensions in ties due to differences over the alleged instances of violence targeting Hindu minorities in Bangladesh and India’s decision to grant asylum to Sheikh Hasina.

Tensions in bilateral ties also seem to have escalated after Yunus’s comment on India’s northeastern states during his visit to the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) annual conference in China.

Earlier, a PTI report suggested that PM Modi was likely to meet Yunus though the external affairs ministry had not commented on the proposed meeting. On Thursday, the prime minister and Yunus were seated together at a dinner hosted along the sidelines of BIMSTEC Summit.

The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is a regional organization of seven South Asian and Southeast Asian nations with a total population of 1.73 billion people and a combined GDP of US$5.2 trillion. Thailand is the current chairman of the grouping. The current summit was the first physical meeting of the leaders since the 4th BIMSTEC Summit in Kathmandu, Nepal in 2018.

(This is a developing story. Please check again for updates)