After months of speculation and anticipation, Bangladesh has unveiled its ‘Indo-Pacific outlook’(IPO) that ‘envisions a free, open, peaceful, secure, and inclusive Indo- Pacific for the shared prosperity for all.’ The United States, which originally conceived and floated the Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) and has been urging Bangladesh for the last few years to join them in implementing the IPS. Though Bangladesh doesn’t use the term strategy or IPS, the vision it lays out is remarkably similar to the IPS.
If we review the joint statement made on June 2, 2022 after the Second Bangladesh - US High-Level Economic Consultation held in Washington, it would be difficult to differentiate the language. The joint statement under the subhead Infrastructure/ Trade reads,”Both countries share a common vision of a free, open, inclusive, peaceful, and secure Indo-Pacific region with shared prosperity for all.”
These words have been repeated innumerable times by the US officials to define both the IPS and the Quad, another smaller alliance among the US, Australia, Japan and India. On July 28, 2021, after the US-India Strategic partnership dialogue held in Delhi US Secretary of State Anthony J Blinken said, “We share a vision – India and the United States – of a free, open, secure, and prosperous Indo-Pacific. We’ll work together to make that vision a reality.”
Secretary Blinken amplified this vision again in his recent Asia tour that included the G-7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Tokyo. Before going to Tokyo, he visited Hanoi and on April 15, he said, “Our countries can advance a free and open Indo-Pacific, one that is at peace and grounded in respect for the rules-based international order. When we talk about “free and open,” we mean countries being free to choose their own path and their own partners and that problems will be dealt with openly; rules will be reached transparently and applied fairly; and goods, ideas, and people will flow freely across land, the seas, the skies, and cyberspace.”
Rules-based international order, free flow of goods, capital, services and people, across the seas, the skies and cyberspace all are included in the objectives set by Bangladesh in its outlook. The Japan-Bangladesh Joint Statement on Strategic Partnership issued after the formal talks between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasian and Prime Minister Kishida Fumio on April 26 also provides some idea as to why our Ministry of Foreign Affairs chose to publish its IPO prior to her three nations tour - to Japan, the US and the UK. All these three nations have significant roles in pursuing the policy of open and free Indo-Pacific with a shared goal of countering China’s growing political, economic and military power.
It’s worth noting that the Bangladesh-Japan joint statement begins with the two prime ministers’ reaffirmation of “their commitment to realising a free and open Indo-Pacific based on the rule of law, where the rights, freedoms and sovereignty of all countries, regardless of size or power, are protected by international law, rules and norms.” They particularly affirmed that “maritime order based on common values such as freedom of navigation is a cornerstone for stability and prosperity of the international community and that the use of the sea as global commons will contribute to the development of (the) blue economy.”
Similar objectives had been expressed earlier in the joint statement issued at the Second Bangladesh-US High-Level Economic Consultation. The statement added that the US briefed Bangladesh on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), and Bangladesh welcomed additional information on the supply chain resilience and decarbonization pillars of the IPEF. Bangladesh also sought U.S. technical assistance to sustainably explore its ocean resources and further develop its blue economy, it noted.
All these interactions took place well after China’s warning of 'substantial damage' to ties if Bangladesh joins the US-led Quad alliance. On May 10, 2021 then Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming had said Bangladesh should not join “Quad”, and if it did, then Dhaka’s relations with Beijing would “substantially get damaged.” Terming “Quad” a military alliance aiming against China’s resurgence and its relationship with neighbours, he claimed Bangladesh would not derive any benefit from the initiative.
All these statements and documents clearly show that keeping trade routes between Asia and the rest of the world free, open and secure is at the core of the Indo-Pacific Strategy or the Indo-Pacific Outlook. How China appears on the opposite side of the new strategic convergence of other nations perhaps being better portrayed in the recent cat-and-mouse sea chase in the South China Sea. A BBC journalist, who witnessed and recorded the encounter on April 23, 2023 said a Chinese Coast Guard ship blocked a Philippine patrol vessel, causing a near collision in waters near Second Thomas Shoal in the remote Spratly archipelago. China claims almost the entire South China Sea, including the Spratlys, which is also claimed in part by the Philippines.
China still maintains its claim defying the 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in favour of the Philippines. There are also competing claims by Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan. The sea encounter took place just a day after Philippines' President Ferdinand Marcos Jr met Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Manila, and expressed hope for open communication lines on the South China Sea dispute. Similar territorial disputes exist between China and Japan in the East China Sea.
The unveiling of the Indo-Pacific Outlook has been broadly welcomed by many Bangladeshi analysts and diplomats, who have pointed out that it is based on the dictum ‘Friendship towards all, malice towards none.’ Whether this dictum would be enough to address the Chinese concern about committing to the objectives of rule based order and free and open Indo-Pacific has to be seen in the coming days.
There’s also suggestions that this policy is aimed at making up with the US as the latter's insistence on making the next parliamentary elections free and fair and criticisms over human rights abuses and press freedom have caused some strain in the bilateral relations. But the question is even if there was such an intent, whether that would have enough soothing effect.
(Published in The Daily Star on May 1, 2023.)
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