Speakers call for greater regional partnership to tackle energy crisis

Experts and trade body leaders on Sunday said now is the time to adopt a regional trade partnership in energy among the South Asian nations such as Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan to face the challenges of geopolitical tension.

The severe fallout from the trade war between USA and China, US-Israel war on Iran, Ukraine war with Russia, and weak capacity of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has put global trade in a critical juncture.

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For instance, South Asian nations have been suffering from energy crisis because of supply disruption stemmed from war and geopolitical tension. At the same time, the nations of this region have to buy energy at high prices.

“We can build regional power hub involving Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan to face the global disruption in trade,” said Dibya Mani Rajbhandari, former member of parliament of Nepal, at a roundtable discussion on rewiring global trade held on the sideline of the three-day long Bay of Bengal Conversation 2026 organised by the Centre for Governance Studies (CGS) at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka.

Apart from energy sector connectivity, Rajbhandari also called for partnership in trade and investment among the South Asian nations for offsetting the impacts of the geopolitical tension.

Suthikorn Kingkaew, advisor of KBU Research Institute of Thailand, moderated the discussion.

As a panel discussant, Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) President Showkat Aziz Russell urged the leaders of the South Asian nations to revive the activities of South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) for greater regional partnership in trade, investment in energy, and other issues.

The trade in SAARC region should be in win -win situation, so that all the countries can enjoy the regional trade equally. It is unfortunate that the SAARC member countries have the lacking of warm relationship, he added.

Anwar-ul Alam Chowdhury (Parvez), president of Bangladesh Chamber of Industries, said a trade opportunity has been created for Bangladesh due to the signing of a trade agreement with the US. But unfortunately, Bangladesh may not enjoy this trade benefit as the US may impose embargo for using imported Chinese goods.

Rather, Bangladesh should sign trade agreements with different major trading partners, he added.

Nicolas Weeks, ambassador of Sweden in Bangladesh, said there is a great potential in renewables, and Sweden and the EU can provide the technology.

The EU can be a part of Bangladesh's journey towards diversification of export because being dependent on one sector -- the garment sector -- while being important for the European Union, can also become problematic.

Nikolaos Margaropoulos, president of World Federation of Consuls (FICAC), said very often it is seen that the opportunity is already there, but the difficult part is connecting the right people and establishing confidence between them.

The FICAC adds another dimension as it connects consuls and consular associations around the world so that local networks become part of a much wider international network.

Smruti S Pattanaik, research fellow at Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies & Analysis in India, said it is not possible to diversify industries overnight.

But, South Asian countries need to build the capacity to produce things such as magnets and batteries which China has being doing so for years.

Imran Karim, chairman of Confidence Power & Energy, Bangladesh, and Sriparna Pathak, professor OP Jindal Global University in India, also spoke.