To
assess the performance of the Awami League-led government in foreign relations
over the last year is an exercise in looking at an unfolding scenario of new
possibilities.
At the outset there are no markers
to go by. In its election manifesto it defined its foreign policy generally as
'friendship with all and malice to none'. This is an old adage, which denotes
no specific goals and is subject to nebulous interpretations. Historically, Bangladesh
pursues friendship with all countries except Israel.
We do not recognise that country and follow precepts laid down by the UN and
the other international bodies in recognising and developing inter-state
relations.
Secondly, our foreign minister Dr.
Dipu Moni in one of her public statements had said that Bangladesh
does not need to articulate a new foreign policy as the policy is already
written in our constitution. True, what she referred to was Article 25, clauses
1 and 2, wherein the authors of the constitution had laid down the Fundamental
Principles of State Policy. Hence with no foreign policy debates and with no
White Paper on specific international or bilateral issues in Parliament, one
has to depend on the Prime Minister's statements from time to time or that of
the Foreign Minister to decipher the course of foreign relations.
Ostensibly, the flurry of visits
abroad by these leaders is the only indication that they are in pursuit of some
foreign policy goals. There is no doubt that the Prime Minister has spent a
chunk of her time in the last one year in handling external affairs. This is
not to say that she has wasted any of this precious time. In fact by doing so,
she has quietly laid down that foreign affairs could be an integral part of
good governance and in a globalised world any government worth its salt should
assiduously follow up on its foreign policy aspirations.
Foreign Policy
On May 5, 2009 in a presentation at our NationalDefenseCollege,
Dr. Dipu Moni articulated what is this government's foreign policy. She said
that the foreign policy of Bangladesh
has been designed to 'promote the domestic policies of Bangladesh
in the international context, which in turn are formulated in compliance with
the fundamental principles enshrined in the constitution of Bangladesh'.
In this regard, she said that her major areas of work will be in:
1. International trade
2. Overseas employment
3. Foreign direct investment
4. Overseas development assistance
Her policy priorities are in
'strengthening relations with our neighboring and regional countries, including
SAARC and BIMSTEC
Cataloguing the fundamental pillars
of present Bangladesh
foreign policy, she further said that 'promotion and protection of human rights
at home and abroad' is of essence. She stated that Bangladesh
has declared zero tolerance towards extra judicial killings. The Government has
also reiterated that ensuring people's economic, social and cultural rights and
their right to development were of paramount importance.
Dr Dipu Moni while explaining Bangladesh's
style and conduct of foreign policy said that multilateralism would be the
'bedrock of foreign policy' as it is perceived as a 'source of strength and
security for a small country like Bangladesh.'
Halfway through 2009, we have from
the government an elaboration of what it would be its foreign policy. Of course
many of the elements contained in it had been policy also of several past
Governments. Important aspects missing in the policy were addressing matters
like international nacro-terrorism, pandemics and globalization itself which
have taken centre stage in the world of foreign relations. A sceptic would say
that the policy enunciated by Dr Dipu Moni relates more to what our Ministry of
Commerce and our External Relation Division of the Ministry of Finance are
engaged in. The remit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in policy remains in
handling foreign visits of our VVIPs and consular matters and reacting to
external developments in the region and around the world. The core professionals
in her Ministry of again left out of policy formulation and relegated to
pen-pushing on behalf of other Ministries. Foreign policy per se should be much
more than what has been laid down. The centrality of Foreign Affairs in
governance is always a hall-mark of democratic dispensation. Hence the ministry
of Foreign Affairs need to be involved in policy making in a wide range of
issues which could have regional and international implications.
An assessment of performance of the
ministry of Foreign affairs and its conduct of Foreign policy however is in
order.
Bilateral Relations
Let us begin with bilateral
relations. Honorable Prime Minister at the beginning of her term went calling
on the Saudi King and performed Umrah. Her talks with Saudi leadership centered
on the various problems which more than 2 million Bangladeshi workers face in
that country. According to press reports she discussed the 'akama'
(work-permit) problem as well as the prospects of future recruitment of
Bangladeshi's employment in that country. She was assured that on both counts
the Saudi authorities would look at Bangladesh
sympathetically. Subsequent developments do not attest to any significant
progress. What the prime minister did on her own account was to use up the
'last resort' i.e. her own presence to resolve an issue which one of her
ministers could have initially handled. The Honorable Prime Minister could have
waited and go to meet the King at a later date with assets which the Saudi
Government would be willing to accept in return conceding the 'akama' as well
as start recruiting more Bangladeshis. However we are told that the Saudi
bureaucracy takes their time to implement Royal instructions and we may yet see
the Akama coming our way.
Honorable Prime Minister's next
visit was to Qatar.
Her talks there related to substantive matters. Items like Qatar
financial support for river dredging, establishment of community hospitals,
exploration and distribution of gas and oil, construction of community shelters
in the coastal region against floods and cyclones as well as training of
Bangladeshi manpower before sending them on jobs abroad were broached. The
assurances received were also followed up and developments started taking
place. Her next visit was to the UAE with meetings held at the level of Deputy
President and the Prime Minister and with the Ruler of Dubai. These were
perhaps more in the nature of getting to know each other.
The bilateral engagements which
were of immediate significance to Bangladesh
were the ones with Myanmar
and India.
Dr. Dipu Moni moved purposefully to
work on developing relations with Myanmar.
She visited the new capital and met the top leaders. Bangladesh
has three areas of concern with that country. They are 1. The repatriation of
the remaining 28000 or more Rohingyas who have taken refuge in Coxs Bazar
district 2. The demarcation of maritime boundary with Bangladesh
and 3. To increase bilateral trade. In her meetings she clearly laid down Bangladesh's
position and tried to understand what Myanmar's
stand were on those matters.
In a subsequent meeting with the
Foreign minister's of the countries of the region held in Bali
last April, Dr. Dipu Moni likened the unfortunate fate of the Rohingyas with
that of the Vietnamese 'boat people'. She said that Myanmar
did not acknowledge that they were their citizens and therefore could not be
considered for repatriation.
The foreign ministers present
brought informal pressure to bear on the Myanmar
delegation and the Government of Myanmar accepted the Rohingyas as part of
their minority population. As a result the Myanmar Government later sent a
delegation to Dhaka and renewed their interest in
accepting back in the first instance, a group of 9000 of the remaining 28000.
The process of repatriation appears to have re-started.
On the question of demarcation of
maritime boundary, Bangladesh
had earlier decided to take the matter to the United Nations for arbitration,
keeping the option of bilateral talks open. This dual track approach brought
the Myanmar
authorities to the table and kept the pressure on Yangon
to go for an 'equitable' solution instead of a purely 'equidistant' one.
Negotiations are on-going and progress is likely. Our Foreign minister also
focused on ways to enhance bilateral trade, but the obstacle relating to
banking hindered quick progress.
Relations with India,
kept the Government engaged for much of the time it devoted to foreign
relations. The tone was set when India
initially sent its the then foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee to Dhaka
to congratulate the Awami League leadership in winning the elections and coming
back to power with a massive mandate. Assurances were said to have been
received that India
was keen to resolve the outstanding issues with Bangladesh.
In fact when the Indian Prime
Minister met our Prime minister at the 15th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement
at Sharm al Sheikh, Egypt
he had clearly mentioned that India
would negotiate with Bangladesh
all the unresolved matters at a pace to be decided by Bangladesh.
The visit of Dr Dipu Moni to Delhi
in preparation for the visit of our Prime Minister added impetus to the
process. But what changed the 'atmospherics' of the relations was the
apprehension and 'handing over' of seven recalcitrant ULFA (Assamese rebel
group) leaders to Delhi. Thus both
time and circumstances was appropriate for a sustentative visit by our Prime
Minister.
The last bilateral visit of 2009
was to Bhutan,
the second country that recognized independent Bangladesh.
The Prime Minister accorded duty free access of several Bhutanese products to Bangladesh
markets. This was a special gesture to her which Bangladesh's
neighbours can take note.
The first bilateral visit in 2010
by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was to India
for four days beginning January 10. Three security related agreements were
signed and two Memorandum of understanding. She was given a warm welcome and
also the prestigious Indira Gandhi Peace Prize. The three agreements seemed to
meet the immediate needs of India
as they will help her contain the various insurgencies in north-east India.
One of the two MOU's would secure for Bangladesh
additional electricity, which she badly needs. However other issues like
sharing the waters of the common rivers especially the Teesta river, completing
the demarcation of land boundary, the demarcation of maritime boundary and
reducing the imbalance in trade with India
were among the issues discussed. The coming months are likely to see greater
movement towards their resolution. The visit seems to have built new confidence
on each other and is likely to help in moving the relationship forward.
However, the Government seems to be
somewhat slow in developing bilateral relations with some of its other
traditional friends like China,
Japan, UK
and the USA.
High level visits are in order so that new dimensions of co-operation can be
added to the existing bilateral relations. Visit to these countries must be in
the Prime Minister's calendar in 2010.
Multi-lateral Diplomacy
The Prime Minister dived into
multi-lateral diplomacy by attending the 64th UN General Assembly in September.
Apart from addressing the UN Plenary session in Bangla and requesting the UN
Secretary General to consider Bangla as an official UN language, her visit to
the UN was used also to confer with 25 other Heads of States and Governments
selected by the UN Secretary General to discuss climate change. It is here that
she made a deep impression with the other leaders when she explained the
consequences of not addressing the carbon issues and how it would affect the most
vulnerable countries like Bangladesh
due to a rise in the sea level. She sought compensation both for mitigation and
adaptation including access to new technology for addressing climate change.
Later she attended a high level Food Security Conference there. But her
interaction with President Obama of the USA
began when she attended a special meeting convened by him to meet the ten
largest UN peace keeping nations which included Bangladesh.
It is too early to state what we
would see as the final act of the COP-15 meeting on Climate Change held in Copenhagen.
The outcome document was just a short statement with no legally binding
program. Our Prime Minister was perhaps one of the very few leaders who
welcomed the outcome and which was crafted by the leaders of USA
and China. The
haste with which her appreciation was conveyed to the world press was perhaps
because it met Bangladesh
immediate concerns. But there are fundamental weaknesses in the content of the
document. The Copenhagen Declaration will be subject to closer scrutiny and
detailed analysis by all state parties. It would again be negotiated and its
very character could be altered during the course of 2010 before the world sits
for the next Climate Change Conference in Mexico
at the end of the year.
The Prime Minister also attended
the Commonwealth summit in Trinidad and Tobago.
Here she could meet up with other Heads of States and governments and had the
opportunity to play the role of a leader of the fifth largest democracy in the
world.
2010 and the Next Three Years
The government now needs to build the foreign affairs team to work closely with
the Prime Minister and follow up matters in the remaining four years of her
term. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs have seasoned professionals who can take
diplomatic initiatives on her behalf and give the prime minister time and space
to initiate action on bigger issues like regional integration, peace in South
Asia, the pursuit of what is called the Asian Century, issues of globalization
affecting LDC's, etc. Bangladesh
with a good track record of using diplomacy to match words with ideals can win
friends around the world.
The Prime Minister in the first
year of her government has laid down the substance and direction of foreign
relations. However with her foreign minister she now needs to revamp the
Foreign Office and convert it into a modern institution fit to conduct foreign
policy for a country of 160 million people. Opening of new missions in Sudan,
Sierra Leone, Romania
and Poland need
to be further examined. Opening in Afghanistan
and Brazil are
more important at this stage. The process can be phased out, unless we have
significant economic opportunities coming our way now. The manning of the
missions abroad must be carefully planned. We understand that the Prime
Minister sometimes seeks out persons who need to be rewarded for their past
loyalty to her cause with ambassadorial assignments. But because of her fast
moving diplomatic steps, she has to use the best available talent both from
inside and outside the cadre. The mediocre would not do for the country any
more. We need diplomats who are well conversant with issues, are the best of
negotiators and have the ability to project the best image of Bangladesh
to the world.
The world is hurtling ahead at
breakneck speed. The countries in our immediate neighborhood like India,
China and the
ASEAN countries are projecting power and influence to obtain their legitimate
claims. Sometimes they get involved with far off powers to establish their
interests nearer to home. Although we in Bangladesh
are not in this power play, but we could unwittingly be sucked into this.
Keeping our feet firmly where our interests are, we would need to promote our
objectives abroad.
In 2009, this Government has made a
quiet beginning. It has just shown our flag. From 2010, it has to start flying
it too.
The Author is the Chairman,
Centre for Foreign Affairs Studies and Former Ambassador to China.
