US fine with Bangladesh joining Chinese naval exercise

A US official has said they have no problem with Bangladesh joining China’s naval exercises as Washington respects Dhaka’s “sovereign rights” to engage with any country.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 22 April 2014, 03:00 PM
Updated : 22 April 2014, 04:18 PM

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US Political-Military Affairs Bureau Tom Kelly made the comment in Dhaka on Tuesday after leading the US side in the security dialogue.

But he said they did not discuss Bangladesh’s relations with China.

“In fact, US also carries out wide-range of military-to-military engagement with China,” Kelly said at a joint press briefing after the dialogue.

“We hope Bangladesh would be comfortable in allowing us to go ahead and engage in those exchanges with China.”

“So we really don’t have any problem,” he said and added that Bangladesh continued to participate with the US in a number of military exercises as well.

In February this year, China for the first time joined the US-led military exercises in the Asia-Pacific region amid a yearslong military buildup, aimed in part to deter Pentagon action in the region, and territorial disputes with several of its neighbours, according to The Washington Times newspaper.

The US felt “very comfortable” with its position in Asia, Kelly said and added that there was “a great degree of interest” in America’s engagement with countries across Asia that he understood travelling across the region.
A Bangladesh navy frigate, BNS Abu Bakar, is understood to have left Chittagong earlier this month and reached the Chinese port of Qingdao to take part in rare naval exercise this week.
Former Indian navy deputy chief Bimalendu Guha told bdnews24.com earlier this week that fostering this kind of maritime cooperation with countries all around China was Beijing's way of countering "rival influence" in the region.
He alluded to the US efforts to get multi-national naval exercises going with Asian nations and Australia.
The US has not sent any of its ships for the exercise despite invitation while Japan has not been invited.
Kelly told reporters that they wanted Bangladesh to have “excellent” security relations with all countries in the region.
Washington, he added, felt “very serene” in its own security relations with Dhaka and that they believed in regional integration that “makes perfect sense”.
“We certainly want Bangladesh to have excellent security relationships with all neighbourhoods including Burma, India and with all countries in the region,”
They discussed about the importance for both the US and Bangladesh “to be engaged in promoting regional integration”.

File photo from Bangladesh Navy's 'Sea Thunder 2014' exercise

He said the security relations with Bangladesh focused on four pillars – humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, peacekeeping Operations and defence cooperation, counterterrorism, and security through both maritime and border.
Secretary (bilateral) to the foreign ministry Mostafa Kamal led Bangladesh side in the third round of the dialogue.
The first such dialogue was held in Dhaka on April 19, 2012 while the second in Washington in April, 2013.
Kelly said their objective was to continue helping Bangladesh advance to play its leadership role in a number of security-related issues with regional and global implications includes peacekeeping maritime security as well as disaster relief.
He, however, said Bangladesh had already advanced a lot in those areas and was now in a position to help other nations in the region and beyond.
“….US has a big stake to help Bangladesh accomplish that,” he said.
He said Tuesday’s discussion reflected “the broad and growing bilateral security cooperation our two governments enjoy and reinforce that Bangladesh matters to the United States”.