Bangladesh PM seeks defense cooperation on 4-day visit to Japan
Sheikh Hasina is also scheduled to visit the U.S. and U.K. following her Tokyo trip.
Bangladesh PM seeks defense cooperation on 4-day visit to Japan
Kamran Reza Chowdhury2023.04.25
Dhaka
[Photo courtesy Bangladesh Press Information Department]Bangladesh’s prime minister left on a trip on Tuesday to Japan, the U.S. and the U.K. to build defense cooperation with Tokyo and explore new partnerships with the two major Western powers, officials said.
Diplomatic observers said the visit to Japan was significant as Tokyo looks to expand regional partnerships to counter Beijing’s influence in the Indo-Pacific. Meanwhile, the trip to the U.S., they said, was a chance for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to demonstrate that all is well between Dhaka and Washington despite an impression to the contrary.
Faruk Khan, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on foreign affairs, told BenarNews that Japan is the “most trusted development partner of Bangladesh.”
“This visit will open up new opportunities for Bangladesh: Japan for the first time offers Bangladesh cooperation in the defense sector,” he said, without elaborating.
Hasina was supposed to visit Japan in November, but Tokyo canceled at the last moment without giving a reason.
The cancellation came soon after Dhaka summoned the then-Japanese ambassador to Bangladesh over his statement to the media about rigging in the South Asian nation’s 2018 general election. That vote returned Hasina’s Awami League to power for a third consecutive term.
On this four-day trip, Hasina is scheduled to meet with the Japanese Emperor Naruhito and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday.
Officials of the two countries are expected to sign eight agreements or memoranda of understanding. The agreements will be on agriculture; the construction of a metro rail; industrial upgradation; ship recycling; customs issues; intellectual property; defense; and information and communication technology and cyber security.
Hasina’s trip to Japan, which was the architect of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific concept, comes a day after Dhaka for the first time made public its own outlook on the region.
Dhaka, too, “envisions a free, open, peaceful, secure and inclusive Indo-Pacific for the shared prosperity for all,” according to a copy of the outlook document obtained by BenarNews.
Dhaka’s outlook also sees as guiding its strategy all United Nations treaties and international conventions, as they are applicable, including the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
“Our policy is we would not align with any military pact against anyone as our foreign policy is friendship to all, malice to none,” Khan said.
Bangladesh is caught in the middle of a geopolitical battle between China and the U.S. as they vie for supremacy in the Indo-Pacific region, analysts said. And Beijing and Washington are seeking influence in the non-aligned South Asian nation.
But Bangladesh needs both nations for its economic development and has to balance its relationships with them.
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