Bangladesh is trying to make a balancing act between China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and America’s Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS).
The South Asian country, which has recently graduated from the least developed country, is trying to gain from the initiatives of the ‘big players’, which will ultimately push its economic development and serve the national interest.
Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque visited China last month when Beijing raised the American initiative issue and Dhaka without mentioning IPS made its position clear by saying, Bangladesh is open to any global initiative, which is economic in nature and help us develop our country, said an official.
He said, “Bangladesh has joined BRI in 2016 and very much open to IPS as long as it is economic in nature.”
With a population of over 160 million, Bangladesh needs lots of investment in infrastructure and trade and whoever willing to do so, Dhaka will welcome it, he said.
Some may perceive IPS is meant to contain China while BRI to make Beijing the top economy of the world, but, Bangladesh considers them as an opportunity, said another official.
WHAT IS THE BRI?
The vision was floated by Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kazakhstan in 2013 and so far, over 50 countries are actively taking part in the initiative.
Bangladesh formally joined the BRI in 2016 when Jinping visited Dhaka and signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly promote it.
“We need investment and China can provide it,” said an official.
Paira thermal power plant, tunnel under Karnaphuli river, special economic zones for Chinese investors are some of the areas where Chinese investment are flowing in, he said.
All these projects will create jobs and add value to our society, which we cannot ignore, he added.
When asked are these projects related to BRI, he said, these were conceived long before the initiative was floated.
WHAT IS THE IPS?
There is a shared vision for free and open Indo-Pacific and America is the first country to formulate a strategy (IPS) to achieve it.
“America shared the strategy with other like-minded countries like Japan, India and Australia and they also developed their own strategy about the vision,” said another official.
He said, America shared IPS with us and we are positive about it as long as it serves our national interest.
We had several meetings on the issue and endorsed all the core principles of the IPS, he said.
Freedom of navigation, settlement of territorial and maritime disputes peacefully and in accordance with international law, infrastructure development in a transparent manner, practices of responsible debt financing, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity and rule of law are the core components of the IPS.
“We don’t have any objection to any of those,” he said.
Bangladesh had resolved its maritime disputes with Myanmar and India long before the IPS has come into being, he said.
“We will continue to make a critical balance between America and China for our own national interest and there is no alternative,” he added.