Slightly over a year after they figured among organisations that played a key role in the US regime change operation that saw the fall of the Sheikh Hasina regime, the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) are back in ‘action’ again in Bangladesh.
Four IRI office-bearers and an NDI representative today held meetings with Dhaka-based US diplomats, including Chargé d’Affaires Tracey Ann Jacobson and Political-Economic Counsellor Eric Geelan, on election training and observation, indicating that the Mohammad Yunus-led interim regime might begin taking steps for the promised elections in Bangladesh in February 2026.
A key participant in the meetings was Lisa Curtis, formerly Deputy Assistant to the US President and Senior Director, National Security Council (NSC), between 2017 and 2021.
Curtis, who previously worked in senior roles in the US intelligence community, is said to have played a crucial role in American efforts that led to coalescing the students’ movement and the Jamaat-e-Islami.
Curtis, who is now Director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), recently wrote on why US President Donald Trump’s tariff moves was alienating India.
She emphasised that “India remains one of America’s most important strategic partners and a critical bulwark against a rising China”.
Adding a note of caution, Curtis wrote that “Trump’s recent actions risk making him the president who lost India”.
Besides Curtis, the others who attended today’s meetings include IRI’s Senior Adviser (Electoral Integrity) Jessica Keegan, Resident Program Director (Philippines) Stephen Cima, Program Director Darin Anthony Bielecki and James John Fluharty. NDI was represented by Program Director (Asia-Pacific) Jami Sachs Spykerman.
A few days ago, the IRI team held meetings in Dhaka with representatives of the National Citizens Party (NCP) which was formed by student leaders who were at the forefront of the movement that led to the toppling of the Sheikh Hasina government and the installation of the Yunus-led interim regime.
Last year, Indian media reported the involvement of both IRI and NDI in preparing the grounds for the regime change in Dhaka in July-August 2024.
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It may be recalled that officials from these two outfits regularly visited Bangladesh between 2023 and early 2024, ostensibly to study political trends and the likelihood of violence ahead of the questionable elections of January 7, 2024, which saw the return to power of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League for a fourth consecutive term.
Yet, by July-August 2024, the Awami League was jolted by the student-led movement that caused a mass upsurge that led to Sheikh Hasina’s downfall. She subsequently fled to India.
More recently, the IRI’s name figured in programmes (held between 2020 and 2024) aimed at building capacities of Nepalese youth.
Documents accessed by Northeast News indicated that the IRI spent considerable sums of money over four years to train Nepalese youth and civil society organisations before the outbreak of the mass agitation that led to the unseating of the K P Sharma Oli-led government.
