By Anil Wasif

September 27, 2025

NEW YORK – I am both a policy nerd and a political junkie. And I’ve been lucky enough to make a livelihood to which both those interests add value.

I have met Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa in 2023, His Royal Highness King Charles and Queen Camilla during a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace in 2018. I have interviewed Prime Minister Paul Martin at McGill in 2021, co-hosted President Barack Obama, President Joe Biden and Prince Harry at the Invictus Games during the Ontario150 Celebrations in 2017. I have met ministers, diplomats and premiers from Canada and Bangladesh. Through it all, I’ve been able to pull off a level of nonchalance befitting a young man on the move.

But, as a Bangladeshi Canadian, seeing Bangladesh’s current leader this week cracked even my cool. Muhammad Yunus — from his role in pioneering microcredit to his grace in withstanding years of political persecution and legal harassment to his remarkable vindication as the country’s current interim leader — has been the principled face of Bangladesh for the world.

I had briefly met the founder of Grameen Bank at a UofT fireside chat in 2018, but this time was about meeting the leader of Bangladesh, and I was in the room because of the hard work we have all put into our Bangladeshi diaspora-led non-profit, BacharLorai Global. It was also about my wish for Bangladesh to fulfill the promise of its 2024 pro-democracy Monsoon Revolution.

Yunus, 85, was appointed Bangladesh’s chief advisor last year by the students who organized the uprising that deposed his harasser, the autocratic Sheikh Hasina. His appearances at UNGA high-level week are something of a final lap as a world leader before Bangladesh’s elections, scheduled for February.

As Donald Trump continues to alienate America from the global majority, a unified South Asian economic bloc would fundamentally reshape its own interaction with global powers.

Yunus’s appearances at high-level week have been something of a final lap as a world leader. At Asia Society New York on Wednesday, he took part in a conversation with Society President Dr. Kyung-wha Ka. As Bangladesh prepares to speak at the UN, Yunus on Wednesday addressed the foreign policy thrust he has framed at UNGA 80.

The story began with Dr. Yunus’s return to Bangladesh while he was at the University of Tennessee in 1971 and culminated in a global call to action. He recounted his journey, sparked by the famine of 1974, which led him to a single village and a profound realization: “Poverty is not created by poor people… it’s a fault of the system that we built”. It didn’t take long for his vision to extend far beyond Bangladesh’s borders.

He described his 3Zero Club initiative — zero net carbon emission, zero wealth concentration for ending poverty, and zero unemployment by unleashing entrepreneurship in all — and lauded the Monsoon Revolution.

But to me, the evening’s thesis was about South Asia’s moment for unity.

Specifically, for the revival of the dormant South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and for Bangladesh to join ASEAN, positioning the country as a vital bridge between members participating in both of these blocs.

Yunus’s remarks, combined with his engagements with his counterparts from Pakistan, Malaysia, and even his agenda for Myanmar this week points us toward the fractured state of South Asia—a region of immense potential hobbled by historic mistrust and unrealized cooperation.

Bangladesh Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus at Asia Society New York during UNGA80/Anil Wasif

South Asia is a paradox: a region bound by deep cultural and historical ties, yet it remains one of the least economically integrated areas in the world. It is home to nearly a quarter of the global population but accounts for less than 4% of the world’s GDP, a clear sign of untapped potential.

According to the World Bank, intra-regional trade within the SAARC members hovers at a mere 5% of the region’s total trade, a stark contrast to ASEAN’s, which is over 25%. The 2019 report from the Bank, The Promise of Regional Trade in South Asia,tells us that forming or even reforming an economic block to eliminate non-tariff barriers would triple the value of trade from $23 billion to $67 billion, in addition to integrating supply chains, fostering cross-border investment, and generating employment on a scale that national efforts cannot match.

Climate vulnerability is an existential threat that also demands a united front. Together, South Asian nations could jointly negotiate in international climate forums, develop a regional energy grid based on renewables like hydropower from Nepal and Bhutan to power the industries of India and Bangladesh, and implement cross-border disaster resilience strategies. According to a Stanford University paper from 2021, the electricity grid alone among Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) can deliver significant economic and environmental benefits.

Furthermore, the post-pandemic shift in global supply chains presents a critical window of opportunity. As Western nations and multinational corporations seek to de-risk and diversify their manufacturing bases away from single-country concentrations, a stable, integrated, and accessible South Asia becomes an immensely attractive alternative for investment.

As Donald Trump continues to alienate America from the global majority, a unified South Asian economic bloc would fundamentally reshape its own interaction with global powers. As Yunus’s envoy for international affairs, London School of Economics Professor Lutfey Siddiqi, has argued, the path forward is to prioritize the logic of geoeconomics over the stalemates of geopolitics.

With the strategies of global powers in flux, the path forward is not to look for an alternative external patron like China, but to look inward, to the lessons from our own neighborhood. The ASEAN model is again instructive, proving that a focus on common economic goals can override historic tensions. But to realize this vision, we need to shift the conversation beyond trade statistics.

As Yunus’s envoy for international affairs, LSE Professor Lutfey Siddiqi, has argued, the path forward is to prioritize the logic of geoeconomics over the stalemates of geopolitics.

Following the Chief’s lead, the messaging from pro-bloc advocates needs to be about tearing down the barriers that prevent our people from moving and learning from one another. Imagine a future with simplified, visa-free travel, where a young entrepreneur from Pakistan can easily visit Dhaka, a student from Sri Lanka can explore the beaches of Goa, and a family from Nepal can visit the shores of Cox’s Bazar. This is the tangible dividend of peace and a pre-cursor to regional prosperity.

It is the future the young people of South Asia are demanding when they log in to a gig-work platform from a rural village in Bangladesh to provide services to a start-up in Silicon Valley or Bangalore.

The primary obstacle to such a vision has always been the deep-seated rivalry between India and Pakistan, which has rendered SAARC largely dysfunctional since its last summit in 2014. The secondary obstacle is the South Asian media, which chooses to focus on the politics of division instead of the benefits of unity. The rest of the issues are mostly temporary tactical foreign policy nuances, which can be overcome with diplomacy, public and otherwise. While these considerations are real, they cannot be an indefinite excuse for inaction.

The lessons from ASEAN are instructive. Its founding members also existed in a state of “mutual suspicion,” but were motivated by common threats to develop informal mechanisms for conflict avoidance, famously known as the “ASEAN Way.” This approach, emphasizing quiet diplomacy and consensus, allowed them to set aside contentious bilateral issues and focus on collective economic growth, a strategy that has paid enormous dividends for its members.

SAARC could be revitalized by adopting a similar, pragmatic model, focusing at first on non-political initiatives to rebuild trust. India, as the region’s largest economy, has a special responsibility to act not as a hegemon, but as a benign regional leader, as Indonesia did in ASEAN’s formative years.

The young people of South Asia, like those who powered the Monsoon Revolution in Bangladesh, and the Gen-Z revolution in Nepal are tired of the old guard. They demand a future defined by opportunity, not by the grievances of the past.

Policy Columnist Anil Wasif is a public servant in the Ontario government. He serves on the University of Toronto’s Governing Council and the Advisory Board of McGill’s Max Bell School. Internationally, he serves on the OECD’s Infrastructure Delivery Committee and the World Bank Economic Development Institute’s Community of Practice. He co-owns and manages the Canada-born global non-profit BacharLorai. The views expressed are his own.