Coast Guard to recieve 3 US Ships

[Avisheik]

US 'not eyeing base in Bangladesh'


Dhaka, Sept 16 (bdnews24.com)—America has no interest to build a permanent or temporary base in Bangladesh, US Seventh Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Scott Swift said on Sunday.

He made the remark at a roundtable discussion at Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel where US Ambassador to Bangladesh Dan Mozena were present.

The Vice Admiral came to Dhaka to attend the second annual Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) exercise between the US Navy and Bangladesh Navy that begins on Monday in Chittagong.

"I am not interested in having any base, permanent or even a temporary presence. A permanent presence (in Bangladesh) from my perspective does not make sense," he said while replying to a question at the roundtable.

"This is a resource-constraint environment. Even if the governments of Bangladesh and US had a written agreement that we would come together and have some type of formal relationship beyond the relationship we have now it will be very hard to resource this from a Seventh Fleet perspective."

When asked about establishing 'forward operating sites and cooperative security location', the Commander said, "I hear this often. It is new. You need discussion in Bangladesh. It is not about more bases. It is really about building relationships. It is about developing understanding about how we can work together."

Bangladesh-China relationship

The US fleet chief said it would be counterproductive to oppose military relationship between Bangladesh and China.

"I don't see this as a competition. It's not a competitive effort rather a collaborative effort," Admiral Swift said.

"I am looking for collaborative relationship, inclusive relationship and opposed to exclusive relationship."

"Many of the ships of Bangladesh Navy are Chinese. I assume Bangladesh will continue purchasing ships from China and other countries. These are the decisions to be made by Bangladesh and its government," he commented.

US Ambassador Mozena said he was going to hand over three ambulance boats to Bangladesh Navy on Monday.

Each ambulance boat costs $ 338,000 with spare parts of $100,000 and these were transferred to Bangladesh at no cost to Dhaka.

Maritime Awareness

The US Commander said Bangladesh needed to increase maritime domain awareness to resist any illicit activities in the Bay of Bengal as it has huge natural resources.

"Bangladesh needs maritime force and its Navy is expanding. I will continue to collaborate with the Bangladesh Navy to increase its ability to police the water," he said.

Bangladesh has settled maritime boundary dispute with Myanmar and got sovereign right over 0.111 million square kilometre area in the Bay. Bangladesh is also expecting to get another verdict to settle maritime dispute with India in 2014.

Regional Stability

Admiral Swift said security for security's sake had little value but its greatest by-product was increased stability.

"The more stability we bring to the region, there is lesser chance of conflict occurring in the region. That's why I am interested in having a deepening relationship with Bangladesh Navy."

America is interested about Bangladesh due to its strategic location and Dhaka's approaches to deal with the challenges that occur in the region, he added.

Bangladesh Navy was a regional force and US engagement with it would bring greater stability in the region, he hoped.

"The CARAT exercise is an opportunity to deepen the relationship between Bangladesh Navy and US Seventh Fleet," Swift said adding, "In case of any crisis, both can respond together."

The Seventh Fleet units take part in as many as 100 bilateral and multilateral exercises each year. In addition to these exercises, ships deployed at the 7th Fleet conduct more than 250 port visits every year.

The Seventh Fleet's area of responsibility encompasses more than 48 million square miles -- from the Kuril Islands in the north to the Antarctic in the south, and from the International Date Line to the 68th meridian east, which runs down from the India-Pakistan border.

At any given time, there are 60-70 ships, 120-300 aircraft and 40,000 Navy and Marine Corps personnel assigned to the fleet.

It will increase the auxillary capability of our navy, best of all its free of charge.

 

[ebr77]

where are those trollers....!!!! how come no one is juicing it up. 55 views....until now.

 

[bhisma]

Because they didn't see bangladesh in title, you should have mentioned it.. otherwise your didn't have even 5-10 views..
Indians thought it was given to pakistani navy and pakistanis thought the vice-versa..
It doesn't matter what bangladeshi navy is getting..

 

[Avisheik]

 

[Roybot]

Thats not really a ship.

 

[Avisheik]

^^^Yeah, but the first report that i posted mentioned that they were ships. But i cant change the title after i got the better second report

 

[eastwatch]

^^^Yeah, but the first report that i posted mentioned that they were ships. But i cant change the title after i got the better second report

Sub-continental people have sometimes different conceptions of a word than the native speakers of english. US and the English people sometimes do not even use the word ship for a big floating body. To them all the floating bodies are boats. So, ship can always be replaced with the word boat, large or small, and vice versa. I have read these 3 boats are ambulances for the coast guard.