Bharat Bhushan: India may find it difficult to counter increasing Chinese influence in Bangladesh

By Dilip -
NB: This is especially ironic because of India's role in the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent country; and China's furious opposition to the break-up of Pakistan in 1971. China even used its veto to block Bangladesh's entry into the UNO in August 1972. (India had supported China's membership of the Security Council). DS

India has gone into overdrive to initiate new projects in Bangladesh and improve cross-border trade. This week it delivered ten broad-gauge locomotives to Dhaka, and earlier this month, that is, July 2020, it launched a multi-modal transport link opening up supply lines from Chittagong port to its northeastern states. This is in the wake of China’s successful economic diplomacy. China announced tariff exemptions for 97 percent of all exports from Bangladesh (excluding narcotics-based products) from 1 July 2020. 

This decision addressed Bangladesh’s yawning trade deficit with China and the economic hardships caused by the pandemic. Beijing’s moves coincided opportunely with the India-China military face-off in Eastern Ladakh. India had given duty-free concessions to several Bangladesh products almost a decade earlier, but the reality in that country has changed.

Bharat Bhushan: A hanging in Dhaka, courtesy Delhi
An Open Letter to the world on the Bangladesh crisis of 1971

Dhaka has become more Beijing-friendly over time. Although China’s recognition of Bangladesh as a sovereign country was as late as 1975 - the advantages that China enjoys over India have hugely increased since then. Apart from its enlarged economic footprint, there are concerted efforts to counter India’s cultural and language advantage.


China is now the largest supplier of arms to Bangladesh. It is its second-largest arms-export destination, behind only Pakistan. Bangladesh has acquired two submarines, five maritime patrol vessels, 16 fighter jets, 44 tanks and anti-ship and surface-to-surface missiles from China. Beijing is also constructing the country’s first submarine base in Cox’s Bazar….
https://www.thequint.com/voices/opinion/china-influence-trade-deals-in-bangladesh-india-diplomacy-strategic-options

 More posts on Bangladesh
Mukulika Banerjee - Remembering 'Bacha Khan': The beleaguered legacy of 'Frontier Gandhi' – Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
Hitler's annihilation of the Romanis (the Gypsies of Europe)

Robert Fisk: Sinister efforts to minimise Japanese war crimes
Unit 731 Museum Harbin, China - the Japanese Army's site for "medical experimentation" on prisoners of war
The CIA's Intervention in Afghanistan Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski, Paris, 1998
The knights of Bushido : a history of Japanese war crimes during World War II
Manimugdha S Sharma - Subhas Bose wanted ruthless dictatorship in India for 20 years


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