Yes but I think the way things are unfolding in the neighborhood of BD and around the world...BD can no longer neglect the military and focus solely on improving its economy as it was able to in the past.
At least a couple billion dollars will have to be diverted towards defense needs every year...
...yes COVID19 has caused economic slowdown...and yes BD can still use the money spent on defense for its ppl instead. However...time is running out.
The situation with Myanmar is already tense. A war between Myanmar and BD would destroy both countries...in manpower, resources, etc. A strong military can keep them at bay.
There is an easier way to snub Myanmar and keep them there permanently.
It's called proper border policing, Myanmar makes more money through the illicit trade of Yaba (a type of methamphetamine) than they make by whatever it is that their minnow economy exports.
Bangladesh is the biggest market for this Yaba and its sister drug Pepe (green and white colour version - called Pepe because it looks like the inside of a papaya - Pepe).
Our border force has corrupt officials at the very top and this has been proved many times, while they do not hesitate to protect national sovereignty, they look the other way when it comes to drug trade, busting a few caches here and there only to provide a false picture.
The moment we fence our border, clean out the rats who facilitate the drug trade, Myanmar's defence spending gets slammed.
Make no mistake, all the money from Yaba smuggling goes to the tatmadaw, their army not only runs entire production facilities but they also facilitate it's trafficking to Bangladesh with the help of their buddies the Rohingya drug peddlers.
Cut off the money, Cut off their head and be done with it.
Myanmar's defence spending piggy backs on Bangladesh's economy, we must stop the drug trade now at this very instant.
Myanmar will pose no threat to Bangladesh beyond this decade, as our defence spending grows alongside the burgeoning economy they will fade away into nothingness because we will simply out procure them in every facet of defence hardware.
Our national budget is already larger than their entire GDP.
All in all, this decade we must not falter, not give Myanmar what it wants; A War, we must cut off their revenue stream, keep it that way and wait for time to pass.
A War ruins our economy, put us back in poverty, we stand to lose economic and developmental momentum, it hurts us more than them because they only care for themselves while we have a nation of 160+ million to feed.
On the other hand, a war pulls all the warring parties in Myanmar together against the big bad 'Black' Rohingya Muslim.
Burmese are some of the most racist and xenophobic people on the planet, If you do not believe me open two tabs; Google translate and any Burmese man's Facebook account, I guarantee there will be atleast one post about their sandal clad super power army with some caption and comments about beating the 'black ones back'. Hell, they even subtitle our military TVCs and obsess over war with us.
On the long term Myanmar is no threat to Bangladesh, Myanmar is a failed state and will eventually disintegrate into a flurry of tribal gun toting war lords.
