The good news about Bangladesh's diplomacy is that Argentina has decided to open its embassy, or reopen it, in Dhaka. That is progress for Dhaka. The not so good news is the rift which clearly has come into the relations between Bangladesh and the Russian Federation.
There is little question that the war in Ukraine has cast a shadow over Dhaka-Moscow ties. It is a conflict which has had ramifications around the world and Bangladesh is no exception to it. And yet the inescapable fact is that for the first time in a very long time Dhaka is being compelled to choose between two belligerent sides -- in this instance the West and Russia -- in the matter of its diplomacy.
The summoning of Bangladesh's ambassador in Moscow by the Russian Foreign Ministry for an explanation of Dhaka's decision not to allow Russian ships, those under Western sanctions, into Bangladesh's ports is certainly concerning. It has caused a dent in relations which have so long governed links between Dhaka and Moscow especially since Bangladesh's War of Liberation in 1971.
Bangladesh's people also recall with immense gratitude the enormity of assistance the Soviet Union provided to Bangladesh in the period immediately after the end of the war. There is too the principled stand Moscow adopted at the United Nations in Bangladesh's favour in the months and weeks preceding the surrender of Pakistan's forces in December 1971.
That is a reason why it is now important to go for a reassertion of Bangladesh's foreign policy, based as it is on the plank of friendship with all and malice toward none. The 14 years that the Sheikh Hasina-led government has been in office the nation's diplomacy has unmistakably been underscored by the need to uphold national interests abroad.
The strategic balance so far maintained by the government in its relations with such significant players in the region as Russia, China, and India has been a trifle upset by the move against allowing Russian ships into Bangladesh's territorial waters.
The circumstances bring into the equation, without question, the role of the West and especially of the United States in exerting influence on Bangladesh in recent weeks and months. Senior US officials have been on visits to Dhaka, the objective being to bring Bangladesh on board in dealing with Russian “aggression” in Ukraine. The action by Dhaka to prevent the Russian ship Ursa Major from docking at a Bangladesh port is a consequence of that American move.
Or call it pressure.
All of these call for a reconfiguration of Bangladesh's diplomacy. Dhaka is politically or strategically in little position to see a nosedive in its ties with any of the important players in the region or beyond it.
And at a time when demands for peace and a suspension of arms to Ukraine are being made by anti-war groups in Europe, Bangladesh's diplomacy ought to be aimed at the formulation of a policy that will have at its core the need for negotiations to replace the current state of belligerency over Ukraine.
The Chinese government has already called for a ceasefire. The Indian government, exercising its political and economic clout, has made it known to the West that Delhi's priorities are paramount, that the West cannot expect India to toe its sanctions line.
For Bangladesh, whose growing economy has had quite a few scratches from the Ukraine conflict and whose vital interests, particularly in relation to the Rooppur nuclear power plant, are threatened by Western sanctions against Russia, a clear delineation of objectives is an imperative in these times.
Dhaka cannot afford any slide in its ties with Moscow and steps must swiftly be taken for the low point which has been reached over the issue of Russian ships to be rolled back.
Such a move will entail Bangladesh coordinating its foreign policy perspectives with those of India and other players in the region. In other words, a common regional position on the Ukraine conflict -- a position which must make it clear to the West that the sanctions on Russia are badly hurting economies like Bangladesh's -- should be taking shape.
The Rooppur plant cannot stay abandoned only because the hawks in Washington and Brussels are determined to punish President Vladimir Putin. Neither can economic links between Moscow and Dhaka.
Bangladesh's diplomacy at this point of time is in huge need of reinvention and reassertion. Small states like Bangladesh need to devise the means through which they can withstand pressure from the world's powerful countries on issues which have little or no link with them.
In Washington, Brussels, and other Western capitals, Bangladesh's diplomats should go on an offensive informing governments that Dhaka's economic compulsions necessitate a maintenance of proper and productive relations between Bangladesh and the rest of the world. It is morally unacceptable for Western officials to travel to Dhaka and lecture Bangladesh's diplomats on what they need to do about Moscow.
Policy-makers and the diplomatic establishment in Dhaka owe it to their people to engage in serious and meaningful talks with the West on why nations like Bangladesh must not be pressured into following Russia-Ukraine policies set in Western capitals.
If ever there was a need for Bangladesh to assert its diplomatic priorities, this is the moment. The war in Ukraine will end sooner or later, but the irritation and anger and bitterness it will have caused will linger for years.
When Bangladesh's ambassador was called to the Foreign Ministry in Moscow, it was a portent of a future developing cracks along the way. Two friendly states, tracing back their ties to the struggle for Bangladesh's liberation, now find themselves in an unhappy situation. That should not have been the story.
For Dhaka, the goal now ought to be two-pronged. In the first place, it should make it clear to Washington and Brussels that its economic and political interests must take priority over all other considerations, including Western concerns over Ukraine.
In the second place, Bangladesh must join the growing chorus for a negotiated end to the Ukraine conflict through publicly making it known that a first step in that direction should be a suspension of arms supplies to Ukraine.
Nations are listened to when their foreign policies are articulated in decisiveness and clarity, without ambiguity. As a country poised to join the club of middle income nations, with an economy which despite the battering inflicted by Covid and the Ukraine war remains in a good state of health, Bangladesh should define its diplomatic strategy in the larger interest of its people.
The parametres ought to be set now. A beginning can be made through mending fences with Russia. Antagonising the Russians under Western pressure will undermine Bangladesh's national interests. With a general election ahead, a loud insistence on its diplomatic priorities should be the road Dhaka ought to take, with all the morality underpinning it.
Syed Badrul Ahsan is Consultant Editor, Dhaka Tribune
