Mohammad Amjad Hossain :
The art of diplomacy has become complicated in the present day world. It is not only confined to the conduct of political relations alone but has also been encompassing the entire gamut of bilateral and multilateral in a global situation. Foreign policy of a country is formulated on the basis of core interests and instrumental interests as well. The core interest flows from the interest of the country’s desire to preserve its essence: territorial boundaries, population, government and sovereignty of the country. Since diplomacy is communicating in foreign relations to different parts of the world, therefore, it would be fair to analyse the need and objectives of foreign policy of a state played by a diplomat. Foreign policy evolves on long term and short term basis keeping in mind the country’s interest whether political, economic or geopolitical.
As a matter of fact, Bangladesh is surrounded by India from three sides while the Fourth side is met by the Bay of Bengal and Myanmar having a small border to the south. Therefore, India deserves fairly good relations from Bangladesh.
Since India is a close door neighbor of Bangladesh, therefore, it needs thorough examination from different angles. Banghabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman told me that because of his insistence to Indira Gandhi India withdrew its troops from Bangladesh on 25 March in 1972. The withdrawal of Indian troops from the soil of Bangladesh was a blessing for Bangladesh and India since Pakistan started propaganda that Bangladesh has become a satellite of India and also caused delay in international recognition. We published a booklet from the Foreign Ministry under my initiative but supervision of former Ambassador late Humayun Kabir who was a brilliant officer of Pakistan Foreign Service who used to speak French, and Spanish, apart from English. The booklet was entitled as ‘Operation: death: Destruction’. The booklet was withdrawn following the Simla agreement between India and Pakistan from 28 June to 2 July in 1972.
As a matter of fact, Prime Minister of India late Indira Gandhi did not swallow the defeat from Bangladesh. So, she did not agree with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to stop construction of the barrage at the Farakka. As a result, she in fact violated the agreed joint declaration of the two Prime Ministers of India and Bangladesh on May 16 in 1974. Bangladesh was taken aback when India proposed that barrage would be commissioned as a test-run which resulted in adverse impacts in Bangladesh.
Former foreign Minister late Abdus Samad Azad, however, felt pride to sign an agreement with India for sharing waters from the Ganges in 1977 for a 30 years duration which is likely to expire in 2036. The agreement, however, lacks a guarantee clause. One should note that Bangladesh is a lower riparian country. Therefore, upper riparian India has no right to deprive Bangladesh from sharing waters.
Sharing of waters from the Teesta River remains another problem with India. Teesta, a tributary of Brahmaputra River, flows in the state of Sikkim and West Bengal. The decision of Joint River commission in 1983 was that Bangladesh should receive 36 percent of waters from Teesta. As of now Bangladesh was deprived of the share from Teesta because of opposition by the Chief Minister of West Bengal in spite of repeated assurance by the Prime Minister of India Mr. Narendra Modi who is said after attending the ceremony of 50 years independence of Bangladesh on 26 March of 2021 repeated his long standing position that neighborhood first policy. As a lower riparian Bangladesh has the right to share waters from common rivers of international nature .Globally, a large number of examples in the cooperation between upper and lower riparian countries exists.
During the visit to Bangladesh in 2015 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured Bangladesh that New Delhi would be able to settle the Teesta and Feni rivers water sharing problem with the help of the state governments of West Bengal and Tripura. Emphatically the Prime Minister of India said: “Our Rivers should nurture our relationship, not become a source of discord. Water sharing is above all a human issue.” As of now sharing of waters from Teesta has become a source of discord. New citizenship law 2019 by India has caused displeasure to Bangladesh which subsequently cancelled proposed visits by Bangladesh officials to India.
Since Bangladesh has been maintaining good political relation with India and China Bangladesh as of now did not succeed to repatriate Rohingya refugees to Myanmar who are subjected to ruthless force to expel from Rykhaine state of Myanmar in 2017. The Rohinghya has been subjected to decades of violence and discrimination and percecution in Myanmar .Their largest exodus took place in Rakhine state in Myanmmar forcing more than 742000 people, including children to seek refugees in Bangladesh. Since both India and China have been maintaining good relation with Myanmar but Bangladesh did not succeed to pressure these two friendly countries to pressure military junta of Myanmar to take back Rogigya who became stateless by Myanmer military junta in 1982 having received back Rohingya from Bangladesh during the rule of Late President Ziaur Rahman. Military junta of Burma framed new citizenship law in 1982 which deprived Rohingya citizenship .Prime Minister General U. Ne Win was presiding over Burma. At that time Burma became a pariah state.
It is an irony that Bangladesh as of now has not succeeded to impress upon both China and India to resolve the Rohingya crisis. Also Japan could play a positive role in resolving the Rohingya issue. Imperial Japan occupied Burma in 1942 till 1945 to drive out the British from Burma and assisted formation of the Burmese independence army and trained thirty commanders who were the founders of the modern armed forces known as Tatmadaw of Burma. Therefore, Japan has been maintaining influence over Tatmadaw. As a matter of fact Rohingya are indigenous people living in their ancestral homeland-Arakan for centuries. Arakan is now known as Rakhine state of Myanmar. Therefore, there is a need to pursue from China, India and Japan rigorously to convince the leaders of Tatmadaw to take back their citizens.
Since the war of liberation the United States of America has sided with Pakistan, but relations between Bangladesh and USA have gradually improved. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations in August, 1972 between USA and Bangladesh, bilateral relations have been growing, both in depth and dimension, in spite of occasional twists and turns. Presently US Treasury department imposed sanction on Bangladesh paramilitary forces on10 December 2021 including its current seven officers plus former officers. It has caused displeasure both Foreign Minister and the Prime minister of Bangladesh. USA is critical about Bangladesh’s humanitarian policy as reflected in the report of 2021 Human Rights while US aid is committed to achieve the goal of attaining middle income status by 2024. US being the top investment country, therefore, FDI stands $16.9 billion in 2019 announced to provide more than $ 152 million in additional humanitarian assistance for the Rohingya humanitarian crisis. As of now only Special President envoy for Climate John Kerry and Under Secretary for Political affairs Victoria Niland visited Bangladesh.
Bangladesh’s relation with China grows since Bangladesh has been admitted to the United Nations because China has refrained from exercising veto power in September 1974.After the change over the political scenario in Bangladesh in August 1975 both Saudi Arabia and China accorded recognition to Bangladesh. China accorded recognition to Bangladesh on 31st August in 1975. Since then Bangladesh relation with China has been growing by leaps and bounds. China’s investment in infrastructures which is now worth ten billion, Bangladesh is expected to receive investment worth 40 billion from China under bilateral partnership programme. China has improved relation with Bangladesh significantly over the years. It is interesting to note that Bangladesh received a net FDI of $1.159 billion from China making Bangladesh at top receiver in South Asia. Opening of Padma road and Rail Bridge on 25 June, 2022 by Prime minister of Bangladesh is glaring example of engineering feet of China which is an act of Chinese as a milestone in the field of china-Bangladesh cooperation.
(The writer, a retired diplomat from Bangladesh and former President of Nova Toastmaster International club of America, writes from Falls Church, Virginia).
