Is Bangladesh the Newest Addition to China’s ‘String of Pearls’?

[bdslph]

I hope China and BD become allies. But BD or China needs to take in 60 million Bangladeshis living in India.

We don't need BD. Never did. Never will. Its other way around.

hahha you mean west bengal people

 

[baajey]

To all Bangladeshi Muslims, just remember this simple fact, by the year 2100 AD, there will be 3.3 - 4 billion Muslims and 1.1 - 1.2 billion Hindu's. Our first priority should be to build economic, business and people to people relationship with this Muslim world that will eclipse any other world entity in size, economy and power:
Global Muslim population will exceed 3 billion out of 10 billion by 2100 AD

By that time all Muslims of the world, including Shia and Sunni will be much more developed and rational and all will understand the importance of unity much more than Muslim people alive today, regardless of sect and how religious they are.

Question will be if we are pushed to Bay of Bengal or they are pushed to Indian ocean.

BY THAT TIME WE SHALL BE TOO DEAD TO VERIFY UR CLAIMS.

 

[kobiraaz]

So Sultan Saladin and his Saracen army were actually Bangaalis , interesting perspective (PS: Spiked weed fries up neurons)

we = ummah

wasn't there any comprehension in your school syllabus?

 

[Zabaniyah]

Some recorded facts.

A lot of tall tales.

There has been a subtle shift in Narendra Modi’s attitude towards Bangladesh. Although in his pre-election rallies Modi had threatened to drive out the Bangladeshi infiltrators, his foreign minister Sushma Swaraj hardly mentioned the topic during her recently concluded visit to Bangladesh. The reason is very simple. China is now spreading its influence in Bangladesh very fast and India does not want to lose the confidence of Hasina Wazaed, the prime minister of Bangladesh, who is always looked upon in New Delhi as a traditional ally.

Well, if you confirm that Bangladeshis pole-vault over to India everyday, it would dent Hasina's legitimacy in her party. It would signal that Hasina is not doing well for the economy, the society, etc. Facts do not matter to them. Propaganda does.

Yet there are reasons for India to be apprehensive about Dhaka’s future course of action. Mandarins in India’s ministry of external affairs confirm that Hasina Wazed’s visit to China in June this year has raised many eyebrows among Indian policy makers. Hasina not only signed a number of agreements with China – some of them being militarily uncomfortable for India – but the tenor of her speech during meetings with Chinese political bigwigs as well as her official press briefing after coming back to Dhaka also raised skepticism. To her, Sino-Bangladesh relations are not only a matter of a closer comprehensive relationship of cooperation, but a dynamic process which has metamorphosed from the stage of economic partnership into the realm of strategic partnership.

Please, kindly name those "policy makers" and share their views in public. This hiding and squirreling around is frustratingly childish.

Hasina's last visit is mostly to do with infrastructure development like the deep sea port in Chittagong. There are some energy projects too. Though, third party foreign financing via private commercial banks are not uncommon in regards to power plants. Regent Energy and Summit Group are some examples. Deferred letters of credit that are financed by foreign third parties (including OBUs) are gaining tremendous popularity. Would the author find that worrying? It's business as usual.

What's there to worry about K-8's? It'd be very surprising if China sells J-10's to Bangladesh.

But rather than establishing an independent identity for Bangladesh in South Asian politics, this fundamental change in perception – away from an India-centric foreign and internal policy long cherished by Hasina Wazed’s party, the Awami League – is likely to entangle Dhaka in the vortex of troubled South Asian waters. Hasina’s grudge with New Delhi lies in the fact that the previous Manmohan Singh-led UPA government failed to deliver to Bangladesh the quantum of waters from the river Teesta. There are some other minor issues like the settling of the land boundary between the two countries, which has been stalled due to opposition from several state governments and regional parties of India. But the Teesta issue has been rankling in the minds of the prime minister of Bangladesh and her talk of strategic partnership with China assumes significance in this context.

True. She's still mad at Mamata Banerjee over it

But hey, they did whatever is in their nation's interests. What has Hasina done?

It is true that Hasina Wazed has reason to be dissatisfied with India. She cooperated with New Delhi so far as tackling the insurgency in northeastern India, handed over to India several dreaded terrorists who had taken shelter in Bangladesh and expected, in return, that India would accede to her request of enhanced water flow from the river Teesta. That India could not live up to Bangladesh’s expectation was entirely due to the folly of India’s former National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon, who failed to convince Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, an Indian state through which the river Teesta passes before entering Bangladesh.

Clearly Hasina Wazed is now trying to capitalize on the geopolitical advantage that Bangladesh enjoys as a country which overlooks the strategically important sea lanes of the Indian Ocean linking China with the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, thus playing a role in securing energy supplies for Beijing. In her first press conference in Dhaka after returning from China, Hasina Wazed said that she is prepared to forget the past in the interest of economic benefits for her country, a clear allusion to China’s hostile attitude during Bangladesh’s liberation war in 1971 and her willingness to forge closer ties with China.

But for Bangladesh, doing business with China will have its own connotations. As strategic experts believe, Beijing has its own theory of ‘string of pearls,’ meaning bases by which China can encircle India in South Asian politics. It has already targeted Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka, and if Hasina is now prepared to forget everything in the past then China would have another very important addition to its kitty.

Blah blah blah....

Among all the Chinese footprints in Bangladesh, the most contentious ones are the Chittagong port and the proposal to build a deep-sea port in the Sonadia Island off Cox Bazar. Chiittagong port is now being developed and modernized with Chinese investment and help. Although detailed agreement over this project has been kept under wraps, it is widely believed that China will retain the right to use this port according to its plans and needs. Strategically more important will be the deep-sea port at Sonadia which will also come up in a similar manner i.e. with Chinese investment and direct participation. It will provide China with an excellent base to monitor and control situations in the shipping lanes of the Indian Ocean. In addition to the Gwadar port in Pakistan, control over these two ports in Bangladesh will not only be very important feathers in China’s ‘string of pearls’ cap, they will also greatly reduce the distance of sea connections for China’s remote western and northwestern parts. While the distance from Kunming (China) to Chittagong is 1000 kilometers, the distance between the former and Guangzhou, the nearest sea port in China, is 1700 kilometers.

Contentious? For who? For what?

Bangladeshi government officials always put such big projects under wraps. They did the same with the Padma bridge project.

Such provocative wording should be avoided. It doesn't do any good.

Bangladesh has plans to build up an air force base in the Sonadia Island. It’s a bit baffling. Engaging India in an air duel is out of question for Bangladesh. It had a long standing maritime dispute with Burma, but this dispute as well as the Rohingya influx from Burma to Bangladesh never took such a proportion so as to merit military confrontations between the two countries. Moreover, with the pronouncement of a judgment from an international tribunal on Indo-Bangladesh maritime relations having a bearing on Burma too, the maritime dispute is now on its way to a solution. Then why has Bangladesh been contemplating the construction of this air base? Is it for giving China a back-up support?

Um....no. It's just to keep those military people happy. Do you think that a traditionally military unfriendly party would be in power without the backing of the military? Hasina already made long-term plans for them. Such as, who is going to be the next COS in the future, how is the military going to be organized, and other technical things. All in favor of the ruling. Period.

Beneath the apparent camaraderie between New Delhi and Dhaka, an air of mistrust is there. Even Hasina Wazed has now drifted far away from his father Sheikh Mjibur Rahaman’s policy of total reliance on India. In her last visit to Beijing she has signed an agreement by which China would not only support the Bangladesh military but would provide training facilities for army personnel. For the last five years China has been the largest arms supplier to Bangladesh. Beijing now exports arms to nearly 35 countries and of them Bangladesh is the second-biggest importer.

Sheikh Mujib always maintained his rule to be completely independent from India. He was ferocious over that one.

And so what if Bangladeshis go for military training in China? Or even USA? They can go anywhere they like. They can even go to Mars for all we care.

Silent moves are now taking place here to redraw the strategic balance. Immediately after coming back from Beijing in June, Hasina Wazed declared that the Bangladesh navy would get two Chinese submarines by 2015 and the Chinese ambassador in Dhaka averred that these submarines would help Bangladesh in bringing stability in the region. Dhaka would spend $203 million to purchase these two boats. In March this year, Bangladesh has commissioned two new Chinese frigates and between 2008 and 2012 it bought anti-ship missiles, tanks, and fighter aircraft from China.

Yeah, some very old submarines.

Bangladesh’s silent acquisition of arms has surprised the Indian government. In recent times it has acquired helicopters from France, aircraft from Germany, light helicopters from Italy, and armored personnel carriers from Russia. Its navy has recently test-fired automated missiles. It is a fact that in the international arms market, Chinese arms are a bit cheaper. Moreover, as Beijing is in possession of a very big hard currency reserve it can provide credit and soft loans. In 2012 alone, Bangladesh purchased $350 million worth of Chinese arms.

Ooohh....light helicopters! How mortifying!!

India’s response is marked with caution. It has expressed doubts about the necessity of Bangladesh signing so many pacts with China. But militarily speaking, India has also been keeping its powder dry. It has already decided to build a deep sea port at Sagar Island, on the mouth of the Bay of Bengal and quite near to not only the coastline of Bangladesh but its mainland too. There are plans to set up a missile base on the island wherefrom land-to-ship and surface-to-air missiles could be launched.

There are reasons for India to be uncomfortable with the fact that while Chinese weaponry accounts for 54 percent of total Pakistani arms purchases, the corresponding figure for Bangladesh is 82 percent. Russia recently edged out China in matters of partnership in the construction of Bangladesh’s first nuclear power plant at Rooppur in the Pabna district. But long before that, in 2005 China roped in Bangladesh in the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization along with Pakistan, Iran, Thailand, Indonesia, Turkey, etc. Beijing is now Dhaka’s largest trade partner. On the other hand, Bangladesh is China’s third-largest trade partner in South Asia.

China had always been Bangladesh's largest arms supplier.

The reasons are simple: they are cheap, and come from a reliable supplier with no political strings attached.

And I thought Chinese weapons suck according to Indian opinion on PDF. Why bother creating a fuss over them?

Some Indian strategic experts have ascribed Bangladesh’s pro-China tilt to India’s failure to deliver Teesta waters. But it has to be noted that Bangladesh started entering into more and more agreements with China since 2010, before the Teesta controversy cropped up. They include Chinese financial help to Bangladesh’s first space satellite program, a highway connecting Bangladesh with Kunming in China through Burma, and a 128-kilometer railway line to connect Gundum, a border town of Bangladesh, first with the Burmese, and then with the Chinese systems.

Would that satellite have laser beam?

Rest is all speculation.

In her latest tour to China, Hasina Wazed gave a boost to the growing Beijing-Dhaka nexus. The agreements signed during her visit cover infrastructure, roads, railways, a coal-based power plant at Patuakhali, and a Chinese economic and investment zone in Chittagong. But strategically, the most important agreement has been in regard to construction of a dual gauge railway line from Chittagong to Cox Bazar wherefrom the proposed deep sea port at Sonadia will not be far away.

Hmm....the Chittagong EPZ had been there for a long time. And for the record, the Chinese already do business over there. And depending on the project's implementation, they may be far away. It depends on the people in charge.

The ruling are determined to be at the helm of power in Bangladesh, with or without India.

 

[dray]

True. She's still mad at Mamata Banerjee over it
But hey, they did whatever is in their nation's interests. What has Hasina done?

Exciting exchange offer for Bangladeshis, take Mamata and give us Hasina, or just take Mamata!!

btw why did you left? Who is guarding the sanctity of BD section nowadays?

 

[Zabaniyah]

Exciting exchange offer for Bangladeshis, take Mamata and give us Hasina, or just take Mamata!!

Nah, Hasina is doing just fine here. Or in other words, whatever fate awaits her.

Couldn't care less about Banerjee.

btw why did you left? Who is guarding the sanctity of BD section nowadays?

No time.

 

[kalu_miah]

Some recorded facts.

A lot of tall tales.

Well, if you confirm that Bangladeshis pole-vault over to India everyday, it would dent Hasina's legitimacy in her party. It would signal that Hasina is not doing well for the economy, the society, etc. Facts do not matter to them. Propaganda does.

Please, kindly name those "policy makers" and share their views in public. This hiding and squirreling around is frustratingly childish.

Hasina's last visit is mostly to do with infrastructure development like the deep sea port in Chittagong. There are some energy projects too. Though, third party foreign financing via private commercial banks are not uncommon in regards to power plants. Regent Energy and Summit Group are some examples. Deferred letters of credit that are financed by foreign third parties (including OBUs) are gaining tremendous popularity. Would the author find that worrying? It's business as usual.

What's there to worry about K-8's? It'd be very surprising if China sells J-10's to Bangladesh.

True. She's still mad at Mamata Banerjee over it

But hey, they did whatever is in their nation's interests. What has Hasina done?

Blah blah blah....

Contentious? For who? For what?

Bangladeshi government officials always put such big projects under wraps. They did the same with the Padma bridge project.

Such provocative wording should be avoided. It doesn't do any good.

Um....no. It's just to keep those military people happy. Do you think that a traditionally military unfriendly party would be in power without the backing of the military? Hasina already made long-term plans for them. Such as, who is going to be the next COS in the future, how is the military going to be organized, and other technical things. All in favor of the ruling. Period.

Sheikh Mujib always maintained his rule to be completely independent from India. He was ferocious over that one.

And so what if Bangladeshis go for military training in China? Or even USA? They can go anywhere they like. They can even go to Mars for all we care.

Yeah, some very old submarines.

Ooohh....light helicopters! How mortifying!!

China had always been Bangladesh's largest arms supplier.

The reasons are simple: they are cheap, and come from a reliable supplier with no political strings attached.

And I thought Chinese weapons suck according to Indian opinion on PDF. Why bother creating a fuss over them?

Would that satellite have laser beam?

Rest is all speculation.

Hmm....the Chittagong EPZ had been there for a long time. And for the record, the Chinese already do business over there. And depending on the project's implementation, they may be far away. It depends on the people in charge.

The ruling are determined to be at the helm of power in Bangladesh, with or without India.

Agartala Conspiracy confession, what does it mean for our history | Page 28

Please do more research on Chittaranjan Sutar and Kalidas Baidya and how Mujib sent them to India to start his liaison with Indian govt. to help break Pakistan:
Bangabhumi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Banga Sena - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Later these two Hindu gentlemen from Barisal who were sent to Kolkata by Mujib became IB and RAW agents.

 

[Zabaniyah]

Agartala Conspiracy confession, what does it mean for our history | Page 28

Please do more research on Chittaranjan Sutar and Kalidas Baidya and how Mujib sent them to India to start his liaison with Indian govt. to help break Pakistan:
Bangabhumi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Banga Sena - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Later these two Hindu gentlemen from Barisal who were sent to Kolkata by Mujib became IB and RAW agents.

Did you understand the term, "his rule"? It had nothing to do with the Agartala Conspiracy time frame.

 

[kalu_miah]

Did you understand the term, "his rule"? It had nothing to do with the Agartala Conspiracy time frame.

Really? I think you are more naive than I thought. Anyway give it a rest, I have no interest to inform the likes of you. @khair_ctg please look at your fellow Chittgonian here.

 

[Dem!god]

we = ummah

wasn't there any comprehension in your school syllabus?

nope.... we aren't taught abt ummah chumma thing.....
neither we care of these delusion...
lol... ummah ... thats why arabs treats bangladeshi as dust... forever eager to clean up the mess...

 

[ExtraOdinary]

we = ummah

wasn't there any comprehension in your school syllabus?

Well after grade 3 we were taught that the stories by the Brothers Grimm were actually fairy tales and a kid should not confuse Neverland with the real world. I always wonder if our education system is flawed and whether it was the right thing to do. I mean let a kid remain a kid for a few more years, why spoil his fantasy. The question which intrigues me though is, are you still a kid

 

[Zabaniyah]

Really? I think you are more naive than I thought. Anyway give it a rest, I have no interest to inform the likes of you. @khair_ctg please look at your fellow Chittgonian here.

What does the Agartala Conspiracy have to do with the topic again? And yes, at least he did try as much as possible to maintain his legitimacy during his rule even against Indian whims. Albeit on a personal note. You can ask any old Bangladeshi who lived through his reign.

I'm not Chittagongian. And no one has asked you to rate the views and patriotism of others. You are in no position.

 

[kalu_miah]

What does the Agartala Conspiracy have to do with the topic again? And yes, at least he did try as much as possible to maintain his legitimacy during his rule even against Indian whims. Albeit on a personal note. You can ask any old Bangladeshi who lived through his reign.

I'm not Chittagongian. And no one has asked you to rate the views and patriotism of others. You are in no position.

Mujib built his career with Indian and Hindu help starting with formation of Awami League dropping the name Muslim and merging it with East Pakistan Congress. He was a charlatan and demagogue who misled our nation. And his rule was ensured by none other that RAW trained Mujib Bahini that later became Rakkhi Bahini, who killed people like Siraj Shikdar and 40,000 other communist freedom fighters with Indian backing and support. @idune, what do you say about this propagation of nonsense by our fellow member here, who is much admired and respected by Indians for his "balanced" views?

Sorry for thinking you are Chittagonian, for some reason I had that impression, I guess I was wrong, but does not change things one way or the other.

 

[amitkriit]

Congratulations Bangladeshis, you have been noticed.

 

[Zabaniyah]

Mujib built his career with Indian and Hindu help starting with formation of Awami League dropping the name Muslim and merging it with East Pakistan Congress. He was a charlatan and demagogue who misled our nation. And his rule was ensured by none other that RAW trained Mujib Bahini that later became Rakkhi Bahini, who killed people like Siraj Shikdar and 40,000 other communist freedom fighters with Indian backing and support. @idune, what do you say about this propagation of nonsense by our fellow member here, who is much admired and respected by Indians for his "balanced" views?

Yes, before his reign, and he did organized to kill off the rest of the Muslim League after. He surrounded by dalals though, not that he was completely loyal to India. The man was incapable of decisions. He tried though. Why else would he even support a two-nation theory in the first place?

Once again, you are in no position to rate others. Different expressions is what makes nations great. Otherwise, how are you lot any different from Hasina and her kind?

I don't see how you are helping with the topic. And for the record, I don't care what Indians on PDF think of me, or even Bangladesh for the matter.

You want to discuss Mujib, go to another thread. This isn't the place.