Talks on for purchase of advanced arms from US
Bangladesh is in talks to buy advanced weapons from the US as part of broader efforts to modernise the country’s military equipment, reported the Nikkei Asian Review on Tuesday.
Bangladesh has shown interest in purchasing two Apache helicopters and unspecified missile systems, said a US official. He could not, however, say what the total cost of the purchase would be, according to the report.
“We desire to support the Bangladesh Military Forces Goal 2030, as Bangladesh seeks to modernise its military equipment,” the US Embassy in Dhaka told Japan’s financial newspaper in a statement.
The report says Bangladesh believes modernisation was essential to address the changing geopolitical environment.
“We need to keep pace with the new era,” Abdullah Ibn Zaid, director of the Inter Service Public Relations Directorate, an arm of the Bangladesh Army, told Nikkei.
“Professionalism won’t develop unless we modernise the military,” Zaid said.
Since Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan in 1971, China, Russia, the US, the UK and South Korea have been the country’s main suppliers of arms and ammunition.
While China remains Bangladesh’s largest defense equipment provider, purchases from the US have grown steadily since the 1990s, reaching $110 million for the nine years since 2010. The figure is dwarfed by its “$1.92 billion in defense purchases from China in the 2010s”, Nikkei reported, quoting the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Asked whether procurement from the US would antagonise China, Abdullah Ibn Zaid told Nikkei, “It’s not an issue of making one happy while [the] other [is] unhappy.
“We have bought from the US before. We have a pact with China as well.”
US officials in Dhaka earlier on October 17 told a group of journalists that US wants to sign two agreements -- the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) and the Acquisition Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) -- as Bangladesh last year sought to buy sophisticated military equipment.
According to them, GSOMIA is a foundational government-to-government legally-binding agreement that permits greater collaboration, and ensures that governments understand and commit to protecting classified military information.
The GSOMIA does not obligate governments to share classified information or material. It ensures protection of the information shared by partner governments, the officials said.
Meanwhile, ACSA allows US and partner nations’ forces to procure and pay for common types of supplies and services, including food, water, clothing, transportation, training, petroleum, ammunition, maintenance and medical services.
“The agreement does not, in anyway, commit a partner nation to military action nor does it authorise stationing of ships, aircraft or military personnel in foreign countries,” an official added.
A US official told Nikkei one benefit would be “to significantly ease our ability to transfer major defense equipment that will help safeguard Bangladesh’s sovereignty and our mutual interests in the region.
“These agreements are also consistent with our interest in expanding our partnership with Bangladesh in the areas of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, peacekeeping, defense trade, military cooperation and counterterrorism, as well as maritime security and regional issues,” he told Nikkei.
Analysts told Nikkei that Bangladesh’s booming economy and strategic location make a compelling case for Bangladesh to bolster its military strength.
Delwar Hossain, professor of international relations at Dhaka University, said it was imperative for Bangladesh to acquire sophisticated military gear because the importance of the Bay of Bengal has risen “all of a sudden”, while China’s Belt and Road Initiative has raised the profile of the region globally.
“It’s a pragmatic decision,” Hossain told Nikkei. “It’s a new area of building strategic relations with the United States.”
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