BANGLADESH DIPLOMACY

Rohingya influx, terror attacks draw int’l headlines

Major successes include visits of Chinese president, US secy of state, holding of GFMD

Like previous years, Bangladesh’s diplomatic front experienced ups and downs in 2016.

In the last 12 months, there were diplomatic success like the visits of Chinese President Xi Jinping and United States Secretary of State John Kerry.
At the same time, there were also challenges like tackling the impact of terrorist attack on Holy Artisan Bakery in Gulshan that put Bangladesh in the world map for wrong reason, new Rohingya influx from neighbouring the Rakhine state of Myanmar and continued failure to bring back the convicted killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The outgoing year could have been much better for the Bangladesh diplomacy if the proposed visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in the third week of December would not have been postponed.
However, Bangladesh could take pride in the fact that it has been able to organise a largest ever event in 2016 to portray Bangladesh as a safe country to visit.
Aside from these events, there were numerous diplomatic activities involving many outgoing multilateral, regional and bilateral visits by the Bangladesh leadership including the prime minister and quite a few incoming visits.

In terms of success, the visit of the Chinese president in mid October is considered by diplomats as the best achievement of 2016.
While in Bangladesh, both Prime Minister Hasina and President Jinping declared the elevation of the Dhaka-Beijing relationship to a strategic level. By this, China became the only country with which Bangladesh will have strategic relationship.
During the visit, Dhaka and China signed 27 agreements and memorandums of understanding on trade, development, infrastructure etc.
A daylong visit by US Secretary of State John Kerry on August 29 was also significant. Though the visit took place at the fag end of his tenure, it was seen as a recognition of importance of the Dhaka-Washington relationship.
The attack on Holy Artisan Bakery on July 1 killing dozens of people including many foreigners shook the nation and Bangladesh became a focus of attention of the world as the attack was the most horrific one on Bangladesh’s soil and it happened in the wake of terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels. Another attack on an Eid congregation in Kishoreganj’s Sholakia made things worse prompting many countries, predominantly the western ones, start issuing travel alerts on visiting Bangladesh.
Furthermore, envoys of different countries started expressing concerns over the security of their own, their missions and staffs. This left the Bangladesh diplomacy with a daunting task, which needed tremendous efforts to restore the image of the country. And, by and large, Dhaka became successful at the end of the year. The successful holding of the ninth summit meeting of Global Forum on Migration and Development from December 10-12 participated by more than 1,000 delegates from more than 130 countries and international organisations proved that Bangladesh is able to ensure security of the foreigners and it is safe to visit Bangladesh.
The postponement of Prime Minister Hasina’s visit to Delhi in December left Bangladesh diplomacy with certain degree of discomfort. The government claimed ‘scheduling’ as the reason behind the postponement of the visit and stated that the visit will take place in February, 2017. Some doubters begged to differ with the reason behind the postponement as dates of this type of visit are fixed considering all the aspects and both sides were working on ‘about fifty’ agreements and MoUs. When the visit was being planned, officials concerned were predicting a major breakthrough with regard to the Teesta water sharing agreement. But, few days later, the same officials started saying that there are so many things in the Dhaka-Delhi relationship apart from the Teesta agreement.
Aside from this, Dhaka’s engagement with Delhi was proactive. But, like in previous years, there were killings of Bangladesh nationals by the Indian Border Security Force along the border.
There was no happy affair with Bangladesh’s second neighbour, Myanmar, despite Dhaka’s remarkable efforts to make things better.
Myanmar forces along with local Buddhists launched a crackdown on Rakhine’s Muslim populace, commonly known as Rohingyas after the killing of nine Myanmar border guard polices on October 9 allegedly by Rohingya extremists. In spite of all-out efforts by Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Coast Guard, about 50,000 Rohingyas crossed into Bangladesh to escape the atrocities orchestrated by the Myanmar forces and local Buddhist population. This figure is in addition to the 3-5 lakh Rohingyas already living in Bangladesh. The influx of Rohingyas continued even on the last day of the outgoing 2016. The Myanmar ambassador to Dhaka was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to express Dhaka’s concern on the Rohingya influx. 
The Indonesian foreign minister paid a visit to Cox’s Bazar to see for herself the plight of Rohingya’s. She was the first ever foreign minister from any country to visit the refugee camps housing registered Rohingya refugees and other camps full of undocumented ones.
The government, as before, could not bring back the absconding convicted killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 2016. But, Prime Minister Hasina raised the issue with her Canadian counterpart regarding the repatriation of one killer living in that country. She also raised the matter regarding another killer residing in the US with the country’s Secretary of State Kerry.
The relationship with Pakistan hit the rock bottom in 2016 when Islamabad kept poking its nose in the trial of war crimes. In connection with the execution of Jamaat leaders, Pakistan’s envoy in Dhaka was summoned more than once while Bangladesh’s envoy in Islamabad was also summoned in this regard. Bangladesh had also joined India not to participate in the nineteenth summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was scheduled to be held in Islamabad in November. Eventually, the summit was postponed.
The year also saw the visits of foreign dignitaries including Chinese and Indian defence ministers and US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Nisha Desai Biswal. It is worth mentioning that it was the first ever visit by an Indian defence minister to Bangladesh.
Besides, Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, the state minister for foreign affairs and foreign secretary undertook substantial number of bilateral, regional and multilateral visits during the outgoing 2016.

BANGLADESH DIPLOMACY

Rohingya influx, terror attacks draw intl headlines

Major successes include visits of Chinese president, US secy of state, holding of GFMD

Like previous years, Bangladeshs diplomatic front experienced ups and downs in 2016. In the last 12 months, there were diplomatic success like the visits of Chinese President Xi Jinping and United States Secretary of State John Kerry. At the same time, there were also challenges like tackling the impact of terrorist attack on Holy Artisan Bakery in Gulshan that put Bangladesh in the world map for wrong reason, new Rohingya influx from neighbouring the Rakhine state of Myanmar and continued failure to bring back the convicted killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The outgoing year could have been much better for the Bangladesh diplomacy if the proposed visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in the third week of December would not have been postponed. However, Bangladesh could take pride in the fact that it has been able to organise a largest ever event in 2016 to portray Bangladesh as a safe country to visit. Aside from these events, there were numerous diplomatic activities involving many outgoing multilateral, regional and bilateral visits by the Bangladesh leadershipincluding the prime minister and quite a few incoming visits. In terms of success, the visit of the Chinese president in mid October is considered by diplomats as the best achievement of 2016. While in Bangladesh, both Prime Minister Hasina and President Jinping declared the elevation of the Dhaka-Beijing relationship to a strategic level. By this, China became the only country with which Bangladesh will have strategic relationship. During the visit, Dhaka and China signed 27 agreements and memorandums of understanding on trade, development, infrastructure etc. A daylong visit by US Secretary of State John Kerry on August 29 was also significant. Though the visit took place at the fag end of his tenure, it was seen as a recognition of importance of the Dhaka-Washington relationship. The attack on Holy Artisan Bakery on July 1 killing dozens of people including many foreigners shook the nation and Bangladesh became a focus of attention of the world as the attack was the most horrific one on Bangladeshs soil and it happened in the wake of terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels. Another attack on an Eid congregation in Kishoreganjs Sholakia made things worse prompting many countries, predominantly the western ones, start issuing travel alerts on visiting Bangladesh. Furthermore, envoys of different countries started expressing concerns over the security of their own, their missions and staffs. This left the Bangladesh diplomacy with a daunting task, which needed tremendous efforts to restore the image of the country. And, by and large, Dhaka became successful at the end of the year. The successful holding of the ninth summit meeting of Global Forum on Migration and Development from December 10-12 participated by more than 1,000 delegates from more than 130 countries and international organisations proved that Bangladesh is able to ensure security of the foreigners and it is safe to visit Bangladesh. The postponement of Prime Minister Hasinas visit to Delhi in December left Bangladesh diplomacy with certain degree of discomfort. The government claimed scheduling as the reason behind the postponement of the visit and stated that the visit will take place in February, 2017. Some doubters begged to differ with the reason behind the postponement as dates of this type of visit are fixed considering all the aspects and both sides were working on about fifty agreements and MoUs. When the visit was being planned, officials concerned were predicting a major breakthrough with regard to the Teesta water sharing agreement. But, few days later, the same officials started saying that there are so many things in the Dhaka-Delhi relationship apart from the Teesta agreement. Aside from this, Dhakas engagement with Delhi was proactive. But, like in previous years, there were killings of Bangladesh nationals by the Indian Border Security Force along the border. There was no happy affair with Bangladeshs second neighbour, Myanmar, despite Dhakas remarkable efforts to make things better. Myanmar forces along with local Buddhists launched a crackdown on Rakhines Muslim populace, commonly known as Rohingyas after the killing of nine Myanmar border guard polices on October 9 allegedly by Rohingya extremists. In spite of all-out efforts by Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Coast Guard, about 50,000 Rohingyas crossed into Bangladesh to escape the atrocities orchestrated by the Myanmar forces and local Buddhist population. This figure is in addition to the 3-5 lakh Rohingyas already living in Bangladesh. The influx of Rohingyas continued even on the last day of the outgoing 2016. The Myanmar ambassador to Dhaka was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to express Dhakas concern on the Rohingya influx. The Indonesian foreign minister paid a visit to Coxs Bazar to see for herself the plight of Rohingyas. She was the first ever foreign minister from any country to visit the refugee camps housing registered Rohingya refugees and other camps full of undocumented ones. The government, as before, could not bring back the absconding convicted killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 2016. But, Prime Minister Hasina raised the issue with her Canadian counterpart regarding the repatriation of one killer living in that country. She also raised the matter regarding another killer residing in the US with the countrys Secretary of State Kerry. The relationship with Pakistan hit the rock bottom in 2016 when Islamabad kept poking its nose in the trial of war crimes. In connection with the execution of Jamaat leaders, Pakistans envoy in Dhaka was summoned more than once while Bangladeshs envoy in Islamabad was also summoned in this regard. Bangladesh had also joined India not to participate in the nineteenth summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was scheduled to be held in Islamabad in November. Eventually, the summit was postponed. The year also saw the visits of foreign dignitaries including Chinese and Indian defence ministers and US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Nisha Desai Biswal. It is worth mentioning that it was the first ever visit by an Indian defence minister to Bangladesh. Besides, Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, the state minister for foreign affairs and foreign secretary undertook substantial number of bilateral, regional and multilateral visits during the outgoing 2016.