Not many Bangladeshis can afford this: Brahma Chellaney questions US ties in Starlink's Dhaka launch

A Nobel laureate courts Elon Musk, Starlink lands in Bangladesh, and a $21 million Indian naval contract is abruptly scrapped. For top strategic analyst Brahma Chellaney, these are not isolated events — they mark a shift.

“To curry favor with the Trump White House, Muhammad Yunus personally invited Musk to bring Starlink to Bangladesh,” Chellaney wrote on X. The satellite internet has now launched — but with speeds capped at 300 Mbps and a $390 setup fee, it's priced beyond the reach of most Bangladeshis. More striking, however, is the timing.

As Starlink quietly embeds itself, Bangladesh has cancelled a major defence order with India — the construction of an 800-tonne ocean-going tug by Kolkata-based Garden Reach Shipbuilding & Engineers (GRSE). Signed last year under a $500-million Indian defence line of credit, the deal had symbolized deepening maritime cooperation.

The deal’s collapse follows the August 2024 ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, a political rupture that has derailed what were once steadily warming military ties with New Delhi. The tug contract was inked during a high-level visit by Indian Navy chief Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi — now rendered diplomatically obsolete.

India’s outreach had aimed to check China's growing influence in Dhaka, especially after China supplied Bangladesh with its first submarines. Now, amid rising digital and strategic footprints from Beijing and Silicon Valley alike, India is watching a neighbor tilt away.

Earlier this year, Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi had said India and Bangladesh viewed each other as “strategically important.” That sentiment, too, seems part of the past.