Currents and crosscurrents
Asian unity and Bangladesh's policy thrust to the East
The principle of fostering good neighborliness should also govern our relations with countries of South East Asia and of East Asia...While our new focus will be directed to the east, our traditional and beneficial relations with the USA and countries of Europe, Middle East and South Asia will not suffer and definitely continue to figure out prominently in the conduct of our foreign relations.
A conference of Asian political party leaders was held in Bangkok from 22nd to 24th November. Leaders of 76 political parties, both from the ruling and the opposition, from 25 countries participated. Besides Asia, Australia and New Zealand were duly represented. Even Russia, whose two-thirds territories fall within the domain of Asia was represented by the President of its Communist Party. Cambodia was represented by President of its National Assembly and Prime Minister Hun Sen. Three former Prime Ministers -- Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh, Sher Bahadur Deuba of Nepal and Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan -- attended the sessions. Bangladesh Nationalist Party was represented by its Secretary General, two of Chairperson's Advisers and its Office Secretary.
The objective was to provide a forum for Asian leaders to meet, deliberate and decide upon issues aimed at realising their ultimate, though far-fetched, cherished goal of forging unity of Asian nations, somewhat in the form of European Union. This could have been the dream of the initiator of this concept, Jose de Valencia Jr., Speaker of the Philippine's National Assembly. He as well as all those who attended were well aware of the formidable hurdles and numerous steps member nations have to take before attaining anything close to their vision. Yet, their participation demonstrated a sense of sincerity and determination in working towards realisation of their objective. As European Union had to go through so many stages, starting initially from a coal and steel union, common market, united parliament and a common currency, so are the Asian leaders required to demonstrate their long patience and dogged perseverance to achieve success.
In order to ascertain the initial reaction, the first such conference was held in Manila two years ago in September 2000. The efforts were much encouraging and that is why the response this year was overwhelming, both in number and status of the participants. Thai Prime Minister Thansin Thanarat was the keynote speaker. The phenomenal progress that Thailand has been able to make, despite the setback of Asian monetary crisis a few years ago, owe much to his commendable endeavour, skill and farsightedness. He is an ambitious politician. His ambition is not confined merely to the politics of Thailand. It goes beyond the territorial boundary and encompassed the region. His strategy represents endearment with the neighbours. He opened fruitful dialogue with Myanmar's military ruler and became popular in Bangladesh by opening cheap air-routes from Chittagong to Chiangmai. He is more cautious of his dealings with the well-recognised Asian leaders of Malaysia and Singapore and careful with the leader of the large nation of the Philippines, though the latter has its own candidate in its Speaker, Joe Valencia.
The very fact that so many leaders from so many countries of Asia attended a conference with a view to exploring possibility of forging some form of unity through dialogue is a positive step towards achieving the desired objective. It was not merely dialogues between leaders of Asia but it provided a forum where leaders of the ruling party and of the opposition, if they wish, have an opportunity to talk to each other without exposure to domestic publicity. Countries of the Middle East were conspicuous by their absence, though there was nominal representation of that region at the inaugural conference in Manila in 2000. While institutionalisation of some form of cohesion among the participating nations in Asia may still be a far cry, because of sharp diversity in size, resources, ideology and state of development etc., the conference, nevertheless, generated a common desire of the participants, at least to forge greater co-operation for their peoples to their mutual benefit.
Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia in her address to the students wing of the BNP on 2nd January stated that the present thrust of the foreign policy of her party would henceforth be eastward. The statement was made shortly after her return from China on a successful mission and looked to many as a major shift in her foreign policy. The defence co-operation agreement signed with China during the visit produced some apprehension in certain quarters. But this doubt has no foundation at all, since the agreement was not a security pact but an umbrella agreement under which China would be able to supply arms, equipment and other provisions as well as training facilities in the defence sector of Bangladesh.
The eastward belief was reinforced by Begum Zia's earlier red carpet visit to Thailand and the recent dialogue established with Bangladesh's close neighbor, Myanmar. BIMSTEK and the Kunming Initiative also played a role in the creation of Begum Zia's policy thrust. In spite of that, her statement gave rise to various speculations from different quarters. People kept wondering whether it meant that Bangladesh will not henceforth assign that much of interest as before for the promotion of friendship and cooperation with its western neighbours, the Muslim world, countries of Europe and, above all, USA?
The answer to that question is an emphatic "no". Bangladesh Nationalist Party professes friendship with all countries, especially with its neighbours, on the basis of the principles of sovereign equality and mutual interests. People, however, normally take countries of South Asia as Bangladesh's neighbors. But Myanmar, Thailand and China are no less close neighbours of Bangladesh, distance and otherwise, as India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The Kunming Initiative of regional cooperation has its potentials of promoting Bangladesh's cooperation with countries on her eastern flank in the same way as the role played by the SAARC in consolidating Bangladesh's relations with countries on its western flank.
Then why was it not so perceived, if not by the people in general, at least by political pundits? The ostensible reason lies merely in the fact that not much attention was paid by successive Bangladesh governments in the past to explore the possibility of promoting friendly co-operative relations with countries in the East. It is now being done through the initiative of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia. Her government has, indeed, seized this opportunity to do so. Of course, gradual opening up of Myanmar from its erstwhile cocoon has helped the process a great deal.
The principle of fostering good neighborliness should also govern our relations with countries of South East Asia and of East Asia. In short, BNP's policy is not to promote relations with one or a group of countries at the cost of relations with another individual or group of countries. So, while our new focus will be directed to the east, our traditional and beneficial relations with the USA and countries of Europe, Middle East and South Asia will not suffer and definitely continue to figure out prominently in the conduct of our foreign relations.
M.M. Rezaul Karim, a former Ambassador, is a member of BNP's Advisory Council.
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