Bringing foreign policy out of atrophy
Mission: Reinvigorating foreign policy.Photo: STAR
THIS country should now be ready to demonstrate some assertive diplomacy. Having played a passive role in international affairs for an inordinately long time -- and that includes issues relating to the South Asian region -- Bangladesh should now be in a position to call the shots in areas that truly matter. Friendship for all is surely a noble sentiment. But there is too such a thing as enlightened national self-interest, a point made not long ago by yours truly. It is in light of that national interest that some measured yet articulate steps need to be taken to emphasise the notion that a nation's foreign policy need not be circumscribed by its geographical limits or its poverty-related realities. The opportunity is here for that needed change in diplomacy, given that once again a secular, elected government is in office. Obviously, new studies will have to be initiated on the nature of the change Bangladesh means to bring about in its dealings with other nations. At the core of those studies will come, naturally, two significant factors. The first relates to how we develop a response to happenings in our immediate neighbourhood. The second concerns our approach to the wider world beyond our frontiers, fundamentally the West. Begin at the beginning, with Myanmar. For a good length of historical time, Bangladesh and Myanmar have enjoyed rather proper relations. And yet it has been on the issue of the Rohingya refugees that the two nations have not made much headway. Successive governments in Dhaka have shied away from taking up the problem with the junta in Yangon. That position, if you can call it a position, must be speedily discarded. A hard-nosed approach to Myanmar is now a necessity. And do not forget that there is that other matter, maritime boundaries, that requires deft handling as well on Bangladesh's part. With everyone looking forward to Pranab Mukherjee's trip to Dhaka in early February, it stands to reason that the new Bangladesh government will raise the matter of the maritime boundaries as well as some crucial security issues with his government. What has lately been happening in the border region between India and Bangladesh (and we speak of the incidents that have the BSF get tangled up with the BDR) calls for a level- headed, mutually acceptable solution. There are, of course, issues that the Indians have consistently raised with Bangladesh's governments. Their stress on transit facilities has left many in this country riled, which is as much as to suggest that Delhi would be well-advised not to insist on this point given the sensitivities here. Transit can wait. But on other matters, Anup Chetia for instance, Bangladesh must reflect on ties with India in the long term. The time has surely arrived when we in Bangladesh could legitimately ask if we have good enough reasons to hold him. If freeing him will lead to a spilling of some beans, to embarrassment for some, so be it. The interests of a few individuals should not stand in the way of meaningful collaboration between two nations. With Thailand, the question of the allegedly forcible sending out to sea of Bangladeshis by its navy calls for an explanation. Silence on the pretext of maintaining friendly relations is pusillanimous diplomacy. And when your own citizens, for all their illegal entry into foreign territory, suffer at the hands of a foreign government, it becomes the job of your diplomats to come to their defence. Point made. And now comes the matter of how we deal with Pakistan. Simply put, the nearly forgotten matter of the stranded Biharis calls for a resurrection. Besides, from a purely security point of view, it should be for the new leadership in Bangladesh to probe suspicions and allegations of activities by Pakistan's notorious Inter-Services Intelligence in this country. There is then the wider world beyond east and south Asia. Bangladesh has so far not developed any constructive position on Kosovo, a nation that has so far been accorded diplomatic recognition by fifty-four countries. We call that sitting on the fence. We may be sympathetic to Russian sensitivities, to other sensitivities. That ought not to preclude our adopting a purposeful position on Kosovo. Not granting recognition to the "republic" set up by Raouf Denktash in northern Cyprus is understandable. Understandable too is the position on Taiwan, in light of the One China factor. But Kosovo is different; and because it is, Bangladesh's diplomatic establishment should move to assert itself here. Vision and moral purpose should be the underpinnings of foreign policy under the new government. The clear message should go out to the world that Bangladesh's diplomacy is about to lift itself out of atrophy and into a new sense of dynamism. It will be assertive; it will speak for the country. Our foreign policy need not be shaped in line with what organisations such as the increasingly redundant OIC might have in mind. It ought not to be in sympathetic response to the sentiments of other nations but neither should it be of a confrontational nature. Sophistication is all.
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