Staff Reporter:
Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain on Thursday ruled out any new alliance among Bangladesh, China and Pakistan, and stressed that it was not done targeting Bangladesh’s neighbouring country – India.
“We are not forming any alliance. It was a meeting at the official level, not at the political level…. there was no element of formation of any alliance,” he told reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs while responding to a question.
Asked whether the meeting was aimed at making India cornered, Adviser Hossain said it is certainly not targeting a third-party. “I can assure you.”
Bangladesh, China and Pakistan held an ‘informal’ trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 9th China-South Asia Exposition and the 6th China-South Asia Cooperation meeting in Kunming on June 19, Dhaka says.
Beijing said Bangladesh, China and Pakistan held “extensive discussions on trilateral cooperation” and agreed to move forward based on the principles of good-neighborliness, mutual trust, equality, openness, inclusiveness and shared development.
On the other hand, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan described the meeting as the “inaugural meeting of Bangladesh-China-Pakistan trilateral mechanism.”
Asked whether Dhaka denies how Beijing and Islamabad described the meeting, Adviser Hossain said there is no need to deny anything but stressed that it was “not anything big and not something structured.”
He said the meeting mainly discussed connectivity and other issues. “If there is any further progress, you will know that. There is not much scope to speculate.”
Asked about other mechanisms on connectivity fronts, the Foreign Adviser said there is nothing wrong if any other country wants to have a tripartite meeting.
For example, he said, if India wants to have such a meeting among Bangladesh, India and Nepal, Dhaka will remain interested to ‘do’ the meeting.
Responding to a question, Foreign Adviser Hossain said the relationship with India is now at a stage of ‘readjustment’ and there is no lack of goodwill from Dhaka’s side to that end.
“Look, let us acknowledge the truth. The level of deep relationship between India and the previous government had and the kind of relationship India had established, the current relationship with us is not like that one,” he added.
Bangladesh’s former acting Foreign Secretary Md Ruhul Alam Siddique, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong and Pakistani Additional Foreign Secretary Imran Ahmed Siddiqui led their respective delegations in the tri-nation meeting.
During the meeting, the three sides exchanged views on possible trilateral cooperation on the basis of mutual trust, understanding and shared vision for peace, prosperity and stability in the region.
Bangladesh, China and Pakistan, during the meeting, identified several areas for deeper cooperation including infrastructure, connectivity, trade, investment, healthcare, agriculture, maritime affairs, ICT, disaster preparedness and climate change issues.
The three sides agreed to forge cooperation on the principles of openness, inclusivity, good neighbourliness and win-win situation, Dhaka says.
Siddique mentioned that as partners of Belt and Road Initiative, the three nations could work together in aligning respective national visions with the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
He stressed the importance of forging robust partnership among the three friendly nations to deliver real benefits to their peoples and to improve their livelihoods.
