In the changed political scenario, Bangladesh has expressed keenness to strengthen its bilateral relations with China, especially in the field of security cooperation. Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain in a recent seminar described the significance of defence cooperation with China as vital for the modernization of Bangladesh's military.
Although China has long been a major supplier of security equipment to Bangladesh, Dhaka now looks forward to further cooperation particularly in the military training programmes. This may be considered an important move from the Bangladesh's side to involve itself in joint military exercise and training with China.
At the present time, Bangladesh has prioritized military collaboration with China in the wake of tense security situation in the south Asian region mainly in Myanmar that left several million Rohingya people homeless. Subsequently, around 1.5 million Rohingyas have taken shelter in Bangladesh, threatening local and regional security.
Since Rohingya refugees have already burdened our already fragile economy in the face of unstable global scenario, Bangladesh wants a quick and safe return of Rohingyas to their own country. And in this case, Dhaka has sought Beijing's support in repatriation of Rohingyas. Though the trilateral dialogue has begun, unfortunately it has not succeeded in returning even a single Rohingya to Myanmar during the last seven years.
Additionally, Bangladesh has been avidly interested in shaping its future relationships with China in the areas of trade and investment, infrastructure development and transfer of technology. In the coming days, along with focusing on the core elements, both countries can also expedite meaningful collaboration on several other emerging areas such as green energy, tourism, satellite technology and climate change.
Notably, to bolster economic cooperation, Bangladesh and China had developed a strategic partnership during the historic visit of the Chinese President Xi Jinping to Bangladesh in 2016 when China had made a $24 billion investment commitment to finance around 27 various infrastructure development projects in Bangladesh. At that time Bangladesh had also joined the Chinese-sponsored Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as the first South Asian country.
That was the beginning of the meaningful economic cooperation between the two countries. Since then, Chinese investments have started pouring into Bangladesh in a large scale.
Accordingly, China has already implemented a number of mega projects like the Padma Multi-function Bridge and its Rail Link, the Dasherkandi Sewage Treatment Plant and the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Rahman Tunnel under the Karnaphuli River, just to name a few.
The Bangladesh-China strategic partnership has now been metamorphosed into a "comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership" when the two time-tested friendly countries not too long ago signed at least 21 instruments including three renewed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs).
The instruments inked between the two countries were mainly for cooperation in the economic and banking sector, digital economy, assistance in disaster management, construction of 6th and 9th Bangladesh-China friendship bridges, export of agricultural products from Bangladesh and people to people connectivity.
We believe that the economic ties between Bangladesh and China will reach a new height in the years to come.
