Bangladesh turns to India to tide over rough patch in ties with US

NG Missile Vessels · Jun 20, 2023

Bangladesh has sought India’s assistance to tide over a rough patch in its relations with the US, especially over the conduct of elections in the neighbouring country, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

The Bangladeshi side has raised the matter with the Indian leadership in recent weeks in the hope that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will discuss it with US President Joe Biden at their upcoming meeting in Washington, the people said.

The matter is understood to have figured when Bangladesh foreign minister AK Abdul Momen met external affairs minister S Jaishankar on the margins of a G20 development ministers’ meeting in Varanasi on June 12.

It has also been taken up by Bangladeshi officials at other levels with the Indian side, the people said.

Bangladesh-US relations have been bumpy in recent months, with the American envoy in Dhaka, Peter Haas, repeatedly calling for the holding of a free and transparent general election and meeting the chief election commissioner to discuss the matter.

The Bangladesh government was irked after the US administration unveiled a new policy in May on denying visas to Bangladeshis who undermine the democratic election process.

In their discussions with the Indian side, Dhaka’s interlocutors have pointed to the importance of Bangladesh in efforts to ensure a free, open and prosperous Indo-Pacific. They have also highlighted that US actions have the potential for pushing Bangladesh closer to China, the people said.

Parliamentary elections in Bangladesh are due by January 2024.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party has been in power for 15 years but is facing increasing pressure because of an economic crisis and mobilisation by the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Publicly, Bangladeshi leaders have dismissed the US calls for free and fair elections, with deputy foreign minister Shahriar Alam saying recently that the new US visa policy “does not bother” his government.

However, the people cited above said the Bangladesh government doesn’t want the opposition to cash in on the stand taken by the US.

Asked about the matter during an interaction at the Foreign Correspondents Club last week, Bangladesh high commissioner Mustafizur Rahman said the US visa policy should be seen in the “broader context of our government’s unequivocal commitment to holding a free and fair election for upholding the democratic process”.

“It is entirely up to the people of Bangladesh to sustain the hard-earned democratic process, political stability and developmental gains in the country,” Rahman said, adding that the world community, including the US, is standing by the Bangladesh government to ensure that elections are free and fair.