During his visit to Beijing last month, chief advisor of Bangladesh’s interim government, Mohammed Yunus positioned his country as China’s gateway to South Asia. He suggested that since India’s northeastern states are landlocked with no access to the ocean, Bangladesh is the only guardian “of the ocean in this region” and therefore “could be an extension of the Chinese economy — building, producing, and marketing goods for China and the world.”

Though Yunus’s aide clarified that the remarks have been misinterpreted, this is a serious claim being made by a supposedly friendly country of India to a notoriously malevolent China. And this claim is based on Bangladesh underscoring its geographical centrality in the Bay of Bengal and by highlighting Indian territorial vulnerabilities. It is striking not only in the........

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