India ‘important neighbour’, want ties based on fairness: Bangladesh Army chief
Bangladesh Army chief Gen Waker-Uz-Zaman said this in an interview with a Bangladeshi newspaper, his first since former premier Sheikh Hasina fled to India last August
Bangladesh is dependent in many ways on India, an “important neighbour”, and will not do anything that goes against New Delhi’s strategic interests, Bangladesh Army chief Gen Waker-Uz-Zaman has said against the backdrop of strained ties between the two countries.
India has a lot of interest in Bangladesh’s stability, and the two sides share a give-and-take relationship that “must be based on fairness”, Zaman said in an interview with leading Bangladeshi newspaper Prothom Alo, his first since former premier Sheikh Hasina stepped down and fled to India last August.
India-Bangladesh relations have been in free fall since the formation of a caretaker administration led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. India has conveyed to Bangladesh its concerns about attacks on the country’s Hindu minority. The arrest of Bangladeshi monk Chinmoy Krishna Das on sedition charges has emerged as another irritant in bilateral ties.
“India is an important neighbour. We are dependent on India in many ways. And India is getting facilities from us too. A large number of their people are working in Bangladesh, formally and informally. Many people go for medical treatment to India from here,” Zaman said, according to a translated version of the interview posted on the newspaper’s website.
“We buy a lot of goods from them. So, India has a lot of interest in Bangladesh’s stability. This is a give-and-take relationship. This must be based on fairness. Any country will want to get benefits from the other. There is nothing wrong in that,” he said.
Bangladesh will “not do anything with our neighbour that goes against their strategic interests”, Zaman said while responding to a question about New Delhi’s cooperation with Dhaka to ensure the security of India’s strategic northeastern states.
The Sheikh Hasina government cracked down on anti-India rebel groups from the northeastern states that had established clandestine bases within Bangladesh. Previous governments in Dhaka turned a blind eye to these groups and elements in Bangladesh’s intelligence setup had reportedly supported the rebels.
“At the same time, we will expect that our neighbour does nothing that is contrary to our interests. When we look after their interests, they will look after our interests with equal importance,” Zaman said regarding cooperation to ensure the security of India’s northeastern states.
Bangladesh will not allow unrest in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and stability along the Myanmar border won’t be disrupted, Zaman said, referring to the region in southeastern Bangladesh where several anti-India rebel groups had bases in the 1980s and 1990s.
Zaman indicated that India too will have to address Bangladesh’s concerns on several issues, including the sharing of waters of cross-border rivers and the issue of the alleged killing of people along the border by Indian security forces. “They [India] will not kill our people along the borders. We will get our fair share of water. There is no problem with this. Let the relations be on [an] equal footing,” he said.
Bangladesh and India have to “maintain good relations based on equality” and the Bangladeshi people “in no way should feel India is dominating over us, which goes against our interests”, he said.
Zaman responded to a question on defence cooperation with China by saying that Bangladesh “must maintain a balance as we go ahead”, and that the country has an “excellent foreign policy of friendship towards all, malice towards none”.
He added, “China is a partner in our development. They have investments in Bangladesh. So, China is very important to us. We use a lot of weapons from China. The Air Force uses weapons from China too. So does the Navy. Their weapons are comparatively inexpensive.”
Zaman said Bangladesh’s armed forces must “not interfere in politics” as it is “harmful for the army to poke its nose in politics”. He said, “This has happened in the past and we have learnt from the past. This has never resulted in anything good.”
The military is “wholly by the side” of the caretaker administration and will try to support Yunus “in any way that he wants” at a time when the change of government represents an opportunity to take forward various reforms, Zaman said.
Zaman responded to a question on Yunus’s recent remarks about holding the general election in either 2025 or 2026 by saying: “The chief advisor has given a timeframe. That is the correct time. We will extend all cooperation to the interim government to implement the election outline.”
The Bangladeshi people, he said, want a “fair, peaceful and festive election” and this is the main objective of the interim government.
Yunus recently said that the general election can be held in 2025 if there is a decision to carry out limited reforms. However, if a decision is made for extensive reforms, the election will have to be conducted in 2026, he said.
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