Bangladesh – Play the Strategy Game to become a Regional Power in South Asia.

Pushing or Pulling towards the center of the board. Getting some notice or it’s a threat from China as Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming said on Monday that China-Bangladesh bilateral ties would be substantially damaged if Dhaka engaged with Quad, according to the media report. The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), an informal security grouping of the US, Japan, Australia and India, are now seeking to seduce Bangladesh to be part of their Indo-Pacific strategy tie.

As an important partner of China, Bangladesh signed up to the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and is a member of the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. One of the crucial aims of both US' and India's Indo-Pacific visions is to counter the BRI with a bid to contain China's development. Roping in Bangladesh can help them achieve this goal.

Another Quad member, Japan, is engaged in many areas of cooperation with Bangladesh as well. For one, Bangladesh's market is appealing to Japan. Despite its small size, Bangladesh has a population of more than 160 million. For another, out of geopolitical considerations, Tokyo hopes to counter the BRI. Japan has proposed the Partnership for Quality Infrastructure and attempted to sign infrastructure deals with Bangladesh. Tokyo, together with New Delhi and Washington, are really the ones behind the scenes that instigated Dhaka to call off the Sonadia deep-sea port project that was constructed by China and turn to cooperate with Japan on another similar program, reported by the media in 2016.

As a response, Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Moment told local English daily Dhaka Post that, "None of us were invited to the Quad, nor did we show interest." If what Chinese Ambassador said is the fact, this will be good. But given that some media outlets, including local ones, had covered Li's remarks, the news that Bangladesh had been invited to join the Quad was possibly not be groundless. Bangladesh either had talked with Quad members over this issue or aim to launch a trial balloon to see China's reaction.

 

Bangladesh holds a good balance between major powers. It actively cooperates with China on economics. At the same time, Dhaka hopes such cooperation will thus bring more countries to invest in Bangladesh. But it also hopes a competition over it remains at the economic level instead of at the political level. Bangladesh raises its value to the regional powers in the Geopolitical prospective. The strategy should secure the higher economic value from the international partners as well as stable the position from Underdog to Regional Power.