Bangladesh Interim Government Leader Professor Yunus Seeks The Nippon Foundation’s Support to Resolve Issue of Forcibly Displaced Persons from Myanmar
Published on June 23, 2025
On May 28, I hosted a dinner in honor of Professor Muhammad Yunus, Chief Adviser of the Interim Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, at the Imperial Hotel in central Tokyo.
He arrived in Tokyo earlier in the day on a four-day official working visit to Japan, which also included a meeting with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on May 30.
My meeting with Professor Yunus was widely reported by Bangladeshi news outlets, including the national news agency BSS, the Daily Star, the Business Standard and the Daily Sun.
We discussed the issue of the forcibly displaced persons from the western Myanmar state of Rakhine, the evolving situation in Myanmar and the sharp decline in humanitarian aid for crises across the globe in recent months.
Professor Yunus praised my efforts in fostering peace and brokering ceasefires in violence-plagued Myanmar, where the military has been fighting armed ethnic groups, the Chief Adviser's Deputy Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad Majumder told the media.
As the head of The Nippon Foundation and honorary chair of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, I have visited Myanmar more than 150 times and am hugely respected by the Myanmar government and the country's more than 100 ethnic groups, the deputy press secretary said.
Professor Yunus sought the foundation’s support to resolve the issue of the forcibly displaced persons and help some 1.2 million Muslim refugees currently in Bangladesh to return home.
"We know you enjoy deep-rooted admiration from all sides in Myanmar," the Chief Adviser was quoted by Mr. Azad as saying.
Professor Yunus said some 35,000 babies are born every year in the refugee camps, and they are growing up without hope.
"Help us before it becomes explosive and dangerous for us," he said, adding that an increase in drug smuggling has also worsened the security situation in the camps.
“We need to bring an end” to the crisis, he said. “This is a good moment. We can work together."
The Chief Adviser also sought support from The Nippon Foundation for the life-saving healthcare research work of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, which has been hit hard by the suspension of aid from USAID.
He invited me to visit Bangladesh.
Foreign Adviser Touhid Hossain, Special Envoy of the Chief Adviser Lutfey Siddiqi, and SDG Coordinator Lamiya Murshed also joined the dinner.