Bangladesh sees the recent election in Myanmar as an opportunity to improve its relationship with the neighbouring country.
It wants to set aside the thorny issues like Rohingya crisis and give more focus on connectivity, energy and strategic cooperation to cement the ties with Myanmar.
“The government wants to give priority to connectivity, energy and strategic issues which are easy to communicate with. But, it all depends on the priority and attitude of the new Myanmar government,” said an official of the Foreign Ministry.
Nobel Laureate Aung Sun Suu Kyi’s party National League for Democracy got a landslide victory in the November election but it is not possible for the party to run the government without the military.
The military-appointed persons will become the ministers of defense and home and 25% of all government positions will be allocated for military-nominated persons.
“Next one year is very important as it will decide the depth of Bangladesh-Myanmar relationship,” the official said.
Deficit of trust
The main problem to improve the relationship between the two governments is deficit of trust.
“In this situation, if sensitive issues like Rohingya or security have been raised, it will not yield any good result,” another Foreign Ministry official said.
The relationship has improved in recent times due to some steps taken by the Bangladeshi side.
Two kidnapped officers of Myanmar defense had been rescued in Bangladesh territory and they were repatriated very quickly.
Bangladesh sent relief materials to Myanmar when it faced flood and Yangoon heavily praised Dhaka’s good gesture.
In addition to that, both the governments have taken steps to improve border security and a memorandum of understanding on this issue is going to be signed very soon.
Bangladesh has borders with two countries and one of them is Myanmar and through this border, yaba, drugs human trafficking and other criminal activities are rampant.
Bangladesh proposed to sign a memorandum of understanding to set up border liaison offices, which will be responsible for managing border, said the official.
“Myanmar accepted it and it will be signed very soon,” he said.
Myanmar and India have similar border liaison office arrangement.
Another senior Foreign Ministry official said Bangladesh and Myanmar are party to BCIM initiative, which is aimed at boosting regional trade and connectivity.
“If the BCIM initiative is materialised, it would be a great platform to improve relationship between the countries,” he said.