‘Not forming an alliance’: Bangladesh dismisses formation of Dhaka, Beijing, Islamabad alliance

Bangladesh said there was no alliance between Dhaka, Beijing and Islamabad, and said the trilateral meeting on June 19 was just on the official level, and not a political one.

“We are not forming any alliance,” foreign affairs adviser M Touhid Hossain told reporters. “It was a meeting at the official level, not at the political level,” adding that there was “no element of formation of any alliance”.

“It is certainly not (about) targeting a third-party (which) I can assure you,” said Hossain, when asked if the meeting was held to sideline India.

The foreign ministry earlier said representatives from Bangladesh, China and Pakistan held an informal trilateral meeting on the sidelines of two Beijing-sponsored regional events in Kunming. These events were the China-South Asia Exposition and the China-South Asia Cooperation Forum. China and Pakistan issued separate statements on the meeting. Beijing said the three countries held extensive discussions on trilateral cooperation and agreed to move forward based on good-neighbourliness, mutual trust, equality, openness, inclusiveness and shared development. Islamabad described the gathering as the inaugural meeting of the Bangladesh-China-Pakistan trilateral mechanism. 

Both countries said the meeting decided to form a joint working group.

The Bangladesh statement, however, did not mention the decision on the formation of the working group. Bangladesh’s former acting foreign secretary Ruhul Alam Siddique represented Dhaka in the meeting with Chinese vice foreign minister Sun Weidong and Pakistani additional foreign secretary Imran Ahmed Siddiqui. 

Pakistan’s foreign secretary Amna Baloch briefly joined the meeting virtually.

When asked if Dhaka rejected any characterisation in the Beijing and Islamabad statements, Hossain said there was no need to deny anything but emphasised that it was not anything big or structured. 

He said Dhaka had no reservations about joining such meetings like the Kunming one with other countries, and gave a hypothetical example involving India, saying if India wanted to have a meeting among Bangladesh, India and Nepal, Dhaka would be interested in attending the next day. However, he added that Dhaka-New Delhi relations were currently going through a phase of readjustment.

Hossain said there was no lack of goodwill from Dhaka’s side. He acknowledged that the deep relationship between India and the previous government of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina was not the same as the current relationship. Ties between New Delhi and Dhaka deteriorated after the ouster of Sheikh Hasina in August last year during a massive student-led protest. She fled to India following the toppling of her Awami League government, and Yunus took over as head of the interim government.