Bangladesh set to roll out red carpet for a Chinese president in decades

Bangladesh is set to roll out the red carpet to welcome a Chinese President in 30 years in the hope that the visit will open up a “historic new journey” for Dhaka and Beijing.

Xi Jinping will arrive in Dhaka on Friday morning on a two-day “milestone” visit with a focus on what Beijing has called pushing forward cooperation within the framework of China’s ‘belt and road initiative’.

The initiative announced in 2013 promotes regional and cross-continental connectivity between China and Eurasia and is the centerpiece of Xi’s economic diplomacy.

“This visit is a gesture of Bangladesh-China friendship and this will begin a historic new journey by opening a new horizon in economic relations,” Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali told journalists at a briefing on Thursday.

He said Bangladesh expected to sign over 25 MoUs and deals which will “deepen” cooperation in the areas of economic, trade and investment, electricity and power, information communication technology, infrastructure development for road, railway and waterway communication and agriculture.

Ali, however, declined to disclose the total amount of the financial package, saying that “discussions are still ongoing”.

But officials related to the state visit indicated that it would be in the region of $20-$25 billion.

Highlights

The foreign minister said President Md Abdul Hamid would welcome his Chinese counterpart at the airport with state honours.

The special flight carrying President Xi and his entourage will be escorted by a Bangladesh Air Force jet before touchdown at 11:40am.

A smart contingent of the Bangladesh Army, Navy and Air Force will present a befitting guard of honour to the Chinese leader, beginning with a 21-gun salute.
 

Xi will then be escorted to his place of residence, Hotel Le Meridien, and from there, he will go to the Prime Minister’s Office to hold a private conversation with Sheikh Hasina at 3pm.

The official talks with Prime Minister Hasina will begin at 3:10pm.

The two leaders will witness the signing of MoUs and agreements soon after the official talks.

Parliament Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury will call on President Xi at his hotel suite at 4:35pm, according to the official schedule.

The visiting president will proceed to Bangabhaban at 6:30pm to meet President Hamid, who will host a banquet followed by a cultural programme in Xi’s honour.

On Saturday morning, President Xi Jinping will pay his respects to Bangladesh’s freedom fighters by offering floral wreaths at the National Memorial at 9am. The prime minister will see him off at the airport later.

A 13-member delegation, including Member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPC and Head of General Office of the Central Committee of the CPC Li Zhanshu, State Councillor Yang Jiechi, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Finance Minister Lou Jiwei, Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng, and Governor of the People’s Bank of China Zhou Xiaochuan, will accompany the President XI.

Significance of the visit

The visit will be closely watched by many countries, including India and the US.

Officials have already indicated that one of the key Chinese interests, that of building a deep-sea port at Sonadia in Chittagong, may not be discussed this time.

Xi during his visit to Bangladesh as vice-president in 2010 proposed to help Bangladesh build the port.

Since then, China has renewed its interest on several occasions and even the then Ambassador in Dhaka Li Jun said Beijing did not have any military intentions.

But due to strategic reasons, many countries, including India, have also shown interest in the project. But Bangladesh is not considering building it with assistance from any single country.

A Chinese newspaper, Global Times, in an editorial wrote that closer ties between Beijing and Dhaka may put pressure on New Delhi to rethink its strategy in South Asia and encourage it to better its relations with Beijing.

According to the daily, India need not be "jealous" of increasing ties between Dhaka and Beijing and it would be wrong to think that Xi's trip to Bangladesh was "to snatch the South Asian country from the embrace of New Delhi".

Foreign Minister Mahmood Ali, however, did not see the “historic” visit having a negative impact on Dhaka-Delhi relations.

He said Bangladesh was still following the foreign policy principle set by founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, which was “friendship to all, malice to none”.

“We don’t want enmity with anybody. We’ll progress by protecting our national interests,” he said.

He, however, said Bangladesh was discussing the issue of joining the ‘one-belt, one road’ initiative of Xi.

“The visit is part of the government’s prudent diplomacy to give institutional shape to all aspects of the relations with China,” he said.

Bangladesh, which has always been a supporter of Beijing’s core issues, including the ‘one China’ policy, is expecting China as a partner in its infrastructure development.

Former ambassador M Humayun Kabir, who is vice-president of Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, finds the visit significant for many reasons.

Speaking to bdnews24.com, he said China needed some partners for the president’s “landmark” "One Belt, One Road" initiative - a ribbon of road, rail and energy projects that aim to help increase trade and make Central Asia more connected to the world.

“Bangladesh could become one of the partners for two reasons – Bangladesh has the capacity to absorb more Chinese products as well as investments.

“They have now the surplus capacity and they need a good market and also investment destination.”

Bangladesh is importing good worth more than $8 billion from China and exporting less than $1 billion. One of the key projects which would be signed on Friday is Chinese economic and industrial zone in Chittagong.

Ambassador Kabir said China also needed friends in the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean, and again Bangladesh could be its strategic partner.

He said Xi’s visit also carried political significance since a Chinese president had not come for a long time to Bangladesh.

“This visit is necessary for them to mobilise their focus on Bangladesh,” he said. “This is also a gesture of reciprocity as our prime minister has visited Beijing twice.”

“Such a visit creates a better opportunity to advance relations. He is coming to Bangladesh to help consolidate relations,” he said.

Announcing the visit, China’s Assistant Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou had said Bangladesh is China's important partner in South Asia and the Indian Ocean region, and the visit would be a 'milestone' in Bangladesh-China relationship.

Prime Minister Hasina in an interview with China’s state-run news agency Xinhua also expressed confidence that the visit would usher in “a new era of intensive cooperation” in trade, investment and other sectors.

She hailed the China-proposed belt and road initiative, and said Bangladesh was also working to connect growth centres of the country with the rest of the region in South Asia and create a single economic contiguity between South Asia and Southeast Asia.

And this "would be host to greater integration with East Asia and connect the three ecosystems to the rest of the world through our seaports in the south", she added.