BANGLADESH and India have identified areas of mutual cooperation to develop the blue economy jointly exploring the marine resources of the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean, a media reports on Tuesday said. Both sides are contemplating teamwork in this regard for exploration of sea bed resources.
It is no doubt a far-reaching initiative in the light of several Memorandum of Understandings signed during the visit of Indian Prime Minister to Dhaka last year. But we believe Bangladesh is also required to be highly caution about such joint action in view of the fact that our marine exploration experiences are basically in the embryonic stage in terms of sea going capacity and exploration knowledge.
This is a new area of exploration to develop the Bangladesh economy following the signing of maritime agreements with India and Myanmar. We know India is exploring the sea bed resources for many years. Its blue economy meaning economic activities based on ocean based resources is already quite big while many in Bangladesh fear since our experiences are lagging behind, our interest may be sidetracked by the Indians in many critical areas. However we hope India will prove otherwise.
Trust and mutuality must provide the basis of such joint action. In this respect in our view is that Bangladesh must achieve the capacity to handle the sea resources with right kind of training, sharing of information and joint research in marine biotechnology, marine aquaculture, deep sea fishing and such other issues covering all aspects of marine life and combating ocean disasters.
In fact the two countries are looking forward to promote the blue economy and joint research on oceanography in the Bay of Bengal to start a new era of sea-based cooperation. These are both highly alluring and sensitive and its objective may only be realized with dedicated collaboration where any big brotherly outlook will not defeat the cause.
Bangladesh is aspiring to become a middle-income nation that needs to explore every new resource both on the land and in the sea. From this perspective, India’s offer of cooperation is most welcome. We hope India will do everything to promote the Bangladesh side to be able to harness the sea resources to make significant contributions to Bangladesh economy.
India is now advancing a new neighbourhood policy under the Narendra Modi government but many neighbours seems to be equally cautious to avoid Delhi’s hegemonistic policy while offering to jointly work on broad band of issues that may mutually benefit to one another. Given its geo-strategic position, the Bay of Bengal is very much in the scanner of emerging naval powers in the region. We believe Bangladesh must take all these matters into consideration while taking initiatives to jointly explore the sea resources in the region.
