Skip to main content

After India visit twice, Hasina’s China visit a ‘pragmatic balancing act'

By Ozair Islam* 
On July 10, Bangladesh's prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, concluded her three-day official visit to China from July 08-10. The leader of Bangladesh made a successful maiden trip to China after being re-elected in January. Following two trips to India in June, Sheikh Hasina's journey to China might be characterized as a balancing act. 
For the sake of the south Asian country’s national interests, Dhaka is delicately balancing between two major nations. China has been seen as Bangladesh's most important development partner, while Bangladesh views India as its most significant political ally. 
Sheikh Hasina has been managing relations between China and India in a balanced manner. As one of Dhaka’s good neighbourhood diplomatic policy, she believes that New Delhi is crucial to Dhaka. She views China as a nation Bangladesh can learn a lot from at the same time. 
Bangladesh is in dire need of improved infrastructure, more investment, and technical help due to its fast economic expansion. The World Bank claims that Bangladesh's economy has continued to develop at one of the quickest rates in the world since 2000. As a result, Hasina has guaranteed Bangladesh's increased involvement in advancing the Belt and Road Initiative, which China has suggested.
Since Hasina's government's primary objective is to strengthen Bangladesh's economy,  closer economic relations between China and Bangladesh, as well as its recent elevation from a strategic partnership to a comprehensive strategic-cooperative partnership, are not surprising. 
Bangladesh now places a higher priority on strategic autonomy due to the growth of its national might. Bangladesh is seen as a major participant in the Indo-Pacific Strategy, although it retains its own perspectives on the region's awareness and vision, emphasizing economic concerns above geopolitical maneuvers. 
China has been involved in the development of infrastructure projects related to transportation, electricity distribution, and communications in addition to lending money and transferring technology. Hasina has on many times expressed her respect for the route China has gone. China and Bangladesh, both emerging nations, aim to raise the quality of life and quicken socioeconomic growth. 
Because of this, bilateral collaboration may exhibit mutual respect and be complimentary. Hasina's visit brought up the topic of Bangladesh's willingness to resolve the Rohingya situation. Despite the humanitarian stance that Hasina's administration provided to the refugees, the problem remains unresolved, and the refugees are now a burden on Bangladesh. China needs a pragmatic stance in this regard to motivate Myanmar to take back the refugees.  China has also pledged to provide 1 billion RMB in economic aid to Bangladesh in an effort to reduce economic challenges.
Hasina's recent trips to China and India demonstrate her practical approach to international relations. Despite concerns raised in India on China's influence in Bangladesh, Hasina is eager to strengthen her ties with both China and India. She is seen as an amiable foreign political figure in India. In June 2024, Sheikh Hasina visited India twice. Beyond their obvious diplomatic worth, the two trips also served as a message about Bangladesh's geopolitical policy, coming immediately before Sheikh Hasina's recent visit to China from July 8–10, 2024. Sheikh Hasina's diplomacy includes finding a balance amongst the main regional powers including India and China.
Following Hasina's election victory, the Indian media focused on the nation she would choose for her first international trip. Along with other leaders of South Asia, Hasina initially attended Modi's swearing-in ceremony before going on a separate state visit. 
The choice was well received in India, which saw Hasina's two trips to the country in less than a month as proof of the two nations' unwavering affinity. The historical connections between Bangladesh and India have had a significant political influence on the current state of their diplomatic relations.
Past discussions have resolved a number of issues between Bangladesh and India, such as the sharing of water, the exchange of enclaves, and connectivity. India encircles the nation on three sides; there is no gain in a confrontation with New Delhi. In light of the observable outcomes of the visit to India, up to ten Memoranda of Understandings (MoUs) and some specific declarations have been made. 
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that he would send a technical team to Bangladesh to assess the benefits and drawbacks of the Teesta water sharing project, in spite of chief minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee’s objections. At the same time, Hasina inked 21 agreements and memoranda of understanding with China during her meeting with Premier Li Keqiang and President Xi Jinping. Hasina’s visit will strengthen people-to-people connectivity, trade, investment, technology transfer, business, and economic ties with China. This necessitates keeping these two Asian influential countries in a strategic equilibrium.
Hasina prioritized Bangladesh's economic interests and did not consciously seek to align herself with either China or India. Bangladesh desires cordial relations with all of its neighbors, in accordance with her statements. Her foreign policy is not contradictory, she believes.  China has shown Bangladesh that it is a responsible and fruitful regional actor that is eager to share its rewards.  
President Xi emphasized the need for further collaboration between the two nations in battling unipolar hegemony, outside meddling, serving as a voice for the global south, the digital economy, and together creating the Digital Silk Road.  Xi's ideas align with Hasina's vision for a digital Bangladesh. China appears open to expanding its educational exchange, climate diplomacy, youth, individual, and media contacts with Bangladesh.  
Bangladesh expects to enjoy a politically stable atmosphere and be able to concentrate on its growth. Both India and China are and should remain its most reliable ally.
---
*Freelance writer and columnist based in Dhaka

Comments

Post a Comment

TRENDING

Modi govt distancing from Adanis? MoEFCC 'defers' 1500 MW project in Western Ghats

By Rajiv Shah  Is the Narendra Modi government, in its third but  what would appear to be a weaker avatar, seeking to show that it would keep a distance, albeit temporarily, from its most favorite business house, the Adanis? It would seem so if the latest move of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) latest to "defer" the Adani Energy’s application for 1500 MW Warasgaon-Warangi Pump Storage Project is any indication.
Post a Comment
Read more

India’s climate tech ecosystem in dire need of both early, growth-stage funding: Report

By Our Representative India’s climate tech ecosystem, which boasts over 800 startups, is in dire need of both early and growth-stage funding to leverage its full potential, according to a report by Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (Ventures) and MUFG Bank , Japan. Despite a robust initial funding landscape, with approximately two-thirds of climate tech startups receiving seed capital, growth-stage investments remain critically lacking. 
1 comment
Read more

'Flawed' argument: Gandhi had minimal role, naval mutinies alone led to Independence

Counterview Desk Reacting to a Counterview  story , "Rewiring history? Bose, not Gandhi, was real Father of Nation: British PM Attlee 'cited'" (January 26, 2016), an avid reader has forwarded  reaction  in the form of a  link , which carries the article "Did Atlee say Gandhi had minimal role in Independence? #FactCheck", published in the site satyagrahis.in. The satyagraha.in article seeks to debunk the view, reported in the Counterview story, taken by retired army officer GD Bakshi in his book, “Bose: An Indian Samurai”, which claims that Gandhiji had a minimal role to play in India's freedom struggle, and that it was Netaji who played the crucial role. We reproduce the satyagraha.in article here. Text: Nowadays it is said by many MK Gandhi critics that Clement Atlee made a statement in which he said Gandhi has ‘minimal’ role in India's independence and gave credit to naval mutinies and with this statement, they concluded the whole freedom struggle.
9 comments
Read more

Bayer's business model: 'Monopoly control over chemicals, seeds'

By Bharat Dogra*  The Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) has rendered a great public service by very recently publishing a report titled ‘Bayer’s Toxic Trails’ which reveals how the German agrochemical giant Bayer has been lobbying hard to promote glyphosate and GMOs, or trying to “capture public policy to pursue its private interests.” This report, written by Joao Camargo and Hans Van Scharen, follows Bayer’s toxic trail as “it maintains monopolistic control of the seed and pesticides markets, fights off regulatory challenges to its toxic products, tries to limit legal liability, and exercises political influence.” 
Post a Comment
Read more

105,000 sign protest petition, allege Nestlé’s 'double standard' over added sugar in baby food

By Kritischer Konsum*    105,000 people have signed a petition calling on Nestlé to stop adding sugar to its baby food products marketed in lower-income countries. It was handed over today at the multinational’s headquarters in Vevey, where the NGOs Public Eye, IBFAN and EKO dumped the symbolic equivalent of 10 million sugar cubes, representing the added sugar consumed each day by babies fed with Cerelac cereals. In Switzerland, such products are sold with no added sugar. The leading baby food corporation must put an end to this harmful double standard.
Post a Comment
Read more

UNEP report on how climate crisis is impacting displacement, global conflicts, declining health

By Shankar Sharma*  A recent report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), titled "A Global Foresight Report on Planetary Health and Human Wellbeing," warrants urgent attention from our country’s developmental perspective. The findings, detailed in the report, should be a source of significant concern not only globally but especially for our nation, which has a vast population and limited natural resources. 
Post a Comment
Read more

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 
26 comments
Read more

75 years of revolution: How China moved away from ideals of struggle for human liberation

By Harsh Thakor*  On October 1st, we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Chinese Revolution, a pivotal moment in the struggle for human liberation. From 1949 to 1976, China achieved remarkable social equality and revolutionary democracy, outpacing other developing nations in literacy, health care, agricultural output, and industrial production. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.
59 comments
Read more