China to continue to support Bangladesh in protecting national sovereignty: Wang Yi

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said China will continue to support Bangladesh in safeguarding national sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.

He also said China will uphold international fairness and justice and basic norm of non-interference in internal affairs in international relations of Bangladesh, according to a statement of the Chinese foreign ministry. 

Yi made the statements when he and Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen held a bilateral meeting in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent on the sideline of a conference on Central and South Asia Connectivity Challenges and Opportunities on July 15 hosted by Uzbek government.

This is significant as China is going ahead with its Belt and Road Initiative, which seeks to connect Asia with Africa and Europe via land and maritime networks with the aim of improving regional integration, increasing trade and stimulating economic growth.

Bangladesh has already joined the initiative.

On the other hand, the US also wants Bangladesh to join US-led Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS), which seeks to ensure free and open Indo-Pacific and international rules upheld in maritime affairs.

Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming in early May this year had said Bangladesh should not join "Quad". Bangladesh's relations with China will "substantially get damaged" if it joins it.

He had termed Quad, of which US, Japan, Australia and India are members, a military alliance aiming against China's resurgence and its relationship with neighbouring countries.

Bangladesh always maintained that it will not join any military alliance, but is willing to join any initiative beneficial for national or regional socio-economic development.

During the meeting in Tashkent, Wang Yi also told Momen that China was willing to work with Bangladesh to maintain the development momentum of the China-Bangladesh strategic partnership of cooperation.

He added that China highly appreciates Bangladesh's firm support of China's legitimate stance on issues concerning China's core interests.

The Chinese minister also said China will continue to provide Bangladesh with vaccines to meet its needs, and is ready to discuss vaccine-filling cooperation with Bangladesh to help the country fight against the pandemic.

Under an agreement, Chinese company Sinopharm is supplying vaccines to Bangladesh. Of the 15 million vaccines as contracted, China has already supplied two million and is scheduled to supply five million vaccine jabs early next month. As gift, it has provided 1.1 million.

Dhaka and Beijing are also working for co-production of vaccines in Bangladesh.

Yi said China stands ready to provide support and assistance to help with Bangladesh's poverty alleviation through the China-South Asian Countries Poverty Alleviation and Cooperative Development Center, which was launched in China on July 8.

AK Abdul Momen told Yi that Bangladesh always insists on the one-China principle and firmly supports China on issues related to China's internal affairs, such as the issues related to Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet.

Bangladesh wishes to launch vaccine-filling cooperation with China, and enhance anti-pandemic cooperation under the framework of the six-nation cooperation mechanism, namely Bangladesh, China, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.