After the recent political upheaval in neighbouring country Bangladesh, the geopolitical scenario in South Asia seems to be changing. While the interim government of Mohammad Yunus has indicated to improve relations with Pakistan, China has now started wooing Bangladesh. China’s ambassador to Bangladesh Yao Wen on Monday visited the office of the political party Jamaat-e-Islami and met party chief Shafiqur Rahman. Although China has described it as a courtesy visit, this meeting is important in the sense that for the first time after the war crimes trial against Jamaat began in March 2010, a diplomat has visited the office of Jamaat-e-Islami in Dhaka.
The police sealed the office of Jamaat in 2011, but it was reopened this year after the student uprising against the Sheikh Hasina government and the ouster of the Hasina government. On Monday, after meeting Shafiqur Rahman, the Chinese ambassador described his party as a well-organized party of Bangladesh. He also described Bangladesh as a beautiful country. Wen said that China wants friendly relations with Bangladesh. In fact, during the reign of Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh was more inclined towards India, while its relations with Pakistan were very tense. However, between 2014 and 2018, Sheikh Hasina also had good relations with China.
Why is China trying to get closer to Bangladesh?
China is emphasizing on increasing bilateral relations and participation with the interim government of Bangladesh and political parties like Jamaat-e-Islami. China wants to help Bangladesh on the issue of education, culture and development projects. The main reason behind this is the geographical location of Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a country adjacent to India and its southern border meets the Bay of Bengal.
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China, which is infamous in South Asia for its strategic and geographical expansionist policy, wants to strengthen its strategic presence in the Bay of Bengal under the guise of Bangladesh. It has already strengthened its strategic presence in the Indian Ocean through Maldives. Apart from this, China has achieved its interests by befriending Myanmar. It has built a military base on Myanmar’s Great Coco Island. This military base is just 55 km away from India’s Andaman Nicobar Islands. Therefore, China is trying to further advance its strategic interests in South Asia through Bangladesh.
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China not only wants to establish its military base in South Asia but also wants to dominate the trade route through the Strait of Malacca located near the Coco Islands. This is the world’s busiest trade route. It has great international importance due to its location in the waterway between the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. This development is worrying for India because Bangladesh is not only a country adjacent to India but it also has a major role in the geopolitics of South Asia. This strategic position makes New Delhi a major partner of Dhaka but China wants to raise doubts on the historical relations between India and Bangladesh by strengthening relations with a party like Jamaat-e-Islami so that India’s relations with the eastern neighbor can be weakened and it can take advantage of it.