DHAKA - A US$1 billion loan deal under
which Bangladesh will procure Russian military
equipment and arms has prompted questions in
Bangladesh over the timing of this and and other
agreements reached last week, and whether the arms
deal will undermine ties with the United States.
Experts also questioned the need for the
first nuclear power plant in Bangladesh, to be
constructed in Rooppur, in the northwest of the
country, for which Russia has also assigned $500
million.
The deals between Moscow and
Dhaka were signed on January 15 during a three-day
visit to Russia by Bangladesh's Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina. The
signing ceremony at the Kremlin was witnessed by
both Hasina and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Two other agreements and six memoranda of
understanding on cooperation in various fields,
including agriculture, public health, medical
science, education, counter-terrorism, culture,
law, justice and parliamentary affairs, were also
signed.
"This seems like an attempt to
seal the deal with the elections ahead," Dr Zaid
Bakht, research director of the Bangladesh
Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) told Asia
Times Online. Parliamentary elections are due
around the end of this year.
Terming the
loan as an intention from both countries to
"expand military and technological cooperation",
Putin was quoted by news agencies as saying
following the signing ceremony that "Russia will
extend Bangladesh a credit of $1 billion, which
will be spent on the purchase on Russian weapons
and military technology".
Under the
agreement, the world's second-largest arms-seller
will provide air defense systems and Mi-17
transport helicopters, armored vehicles and
infantry weapons, a source close to Russia's state
arms export agency told the Vedomosti business
daily.
Bangladesh has been expanding its
defense capabilities, building a new air base
close to neighboring Myanmar and adding frigates
to its navy, AFP reported.
Imtiaz Ahmed,
an international relations expert and professor in
the same field at the University of Dhaka,
rejected concerns that the arms deal will
undermine ties with the US, emphasizing instead
the importance of not alienating neighbor India,
which also has close ties with Russia.
Talking on the January 16 episode of
Tritiyo Matra, a popular television talk
show in Bangladesh, he said: "The ideologies of
the 1970s are no longer there. Russia has been
selling weapons to a number of US friends like
South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia
and others.
"I believe Russia is the only
country that was ready to provide such a loan to
Bangladesh. China would have been an alternative,
but buying weapons from China would have resulted
in adverse vibes from India, which is one of
Bangladesh's closest friends in recent times."
However, Ahmed urged that the terms and
conditions of the loan be made public for further
assessment.
Other guests, who included an
international relations expert and a member of the
opposition, questioned the necessity of the $1
billion loan at a time when Bangladesh has
increased its fuel tariff for the seventh time
during this government's tenure in order to "lower
subsidies".
As a part of the wider
cooperation, Russia is to set aside $500 million
to finance the construction of Bangladesh's first
2,000-MW nuclear power plant, Hasina said at a
joint press briefing after the signing ceremony.
She added that Russian technical and financial
support in the project is "a shining example of
our deeper engagement".
On the nuclear
power plant financing and support, Bakht told
AToL: "Whether the technology and the costs
included are feasible for Bangladesh, this project
needed to be evaluated by Bangladesh before
signing this deal."
He pointed out that
although Russia has a number of nuclear power
plants, "they have suffered numerous problems in
some of them". Bangladesh also should have
expanded its alternative sources of power before
going for nuclear power, he said.
Bangladesh's industrial sector has been
hit by power shortages over the past five years,
worsening each summer. Only around 3,796 megawatts
were generated last summer against a total demand
for electricity of around 5,100 MW, leading to a
shortage of 1,304 MW, according to the Power Grid
Company of Bangladesh.
Hasina said the
preparatory work on the nuclear power plant "will
now allow us to make arrangements for the
establishment of the plant". After she returned to
Dhaka on January 17, it was reported in local
newspapers that work on the Rooppur nuclear power
plant will begin this year.
Besides the
nuclear power cooperation, Putin said Russia is
expanding ties with Bangladesh in the broader
energy sector, as Russia's Gazprom last year
signed a contract with Bangladesh's state-owned
Petrobangla to drill 10 gas wells, which will
"increase gas production in Bangladesh to 56
million cubic meters of gas per day".
Hasina said the various agreements signed
during her visit "will place our relationship on a
firm footing and help in taking practical
initiatives in the future".
During her
trip, Hasina asked Putin to consider duty-free
access of Bangladeshi products into Russia. Putin
told the press that trade between the two
countries has grown to more than $700 million a
year, and "we are placing emphasis to reach $1
billion".
Hasina's visit to Moscow is the
second by any Bangladeshi prime minister. The
first was made by Hasina's father, Bangabandhu
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in March 1972, at the time
of the Soviet Union, under the invitation of
Leonid Brezhnev. Russia had provided support to
Bangladeshi liberation war forces during and after
the liberation war of 1971, she recalled during
her visit.
Syed Tashfin
Chowdhury is the Editor of Xtra, the weekend
magazine of New Age, in Bangladesh.
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