USA wants defence agreement with Bangladesh

[Dual Wielder]

Bangladesh really doesn’t have much choice.

Like I said it’s both a blessing and a curse.

But the other powers are clearly with Myanmar.

Also to be honest Bangladeshi society is actually very conducive to a western orientation.

It makes sense for BD to be US oriented.

Maybe you guys would be treated better than Pakistan, since you don't have the nukes 'baggage', but siding with those Swines has put Pakistan at least 2-3 decades behind. Just entering their homemade war on terror alone, cost Pakistan 250bn USD to the economy, we also sacrificed more soldiers/ civilians than any Nato country, yet they still sanction us, supporting proxies to destabilize our country and trying desperately to get us blacklisted. The quicker china replaces them, the better for our side of the world.

 

[Avicenna]

Maybe you guys would be treated better than Pakistan, since you don't have the nukes 'baggage', but siding with those Swines has put Pakistan at least 2-3 decades behind. Just entering their homemade war on terror alone, cost Pakistan 250bn USD to the economy, we also sacrificed more soldiers/ civilians than any Nato country, yet they still sanction us, supporting proxies to destabilize our country and trying desperately to get us blacklisted. The quicker china replaces them, the better for our side of the world.

Yea I hear you.

But distilled down to simplicity I would be happy if BD gets on the US train.

It’s better than being politically isolated when your belligerent neighbor is backed by both world powers as well as the big regional power and you have NO backing.

The US has its reasons for sure of course.

 

[925boy]

Bangladesh should go for it. I would like to see F-16 in BAF.

....but that also depends on which "camp" Bangladesh wants to be in. These agreements have serious implications.

We have to obey every American demand anyway. So, I will not object any defence agreement with USA. Till now USA always helped and never harmed us (after they recognized us ofcourse)...

Probably because Bangladesh's Islamic culture and identity is more on the "secular" side ? Just wondering...Many developing countries i believe are likely to accept US help by default, because they want to keep good relations with US because of the benefits of doing so, so if they sense US really wants it, they are more like to to tell US yes rather than no.

 

[Indos]

Bangladesh should go for it. I would like to see F-16 in BAF.

Yea I think US can offer cheap refurbished F 16 Block 52 to Bangladesh just like what they had offered to Indonesia. It will be a stop gap before inducting 5 generation fighters after 2030. I hope you guys can get 24 of them.

 

[KAL-EL]

I welcome you Bangladeshis.

Hope you get some of the good stuff.

 

[bluesky]

We have to obey every American demand anyway. So, I will not object any defence agreement with USA. Till now USA always helped and never harmed us (after they recognized us ofcourse)...

USA has been helping and feeding us since Pakistan time without ever demanding anything from a poor BD land. Ask your parents where from the powdered milk, white Markin Kapra, rice and medicines came when they were students in the Primary. Without USAID many BD people then would have gone hungry and naked.

 

[fallstuff]

Bangladesh should go for it. I would like to see F-16 in BAF.

US said no to F-16 sales a number of times before saying Bangladesh does nod F-16, and also stated this will destabilize the region. Even if F-16 is approved to sell, there will always be the issue of not getting spare parts at critical times.

 

[Bengal71]

Cut canal bring crocodile. Stay far away from USA.

 

[Mage]

Cut canal bring crocodile. Stay far away from USA.

Ideally we shouldn't have defence agreement with others. Rather depend on own. But our situation isn't good. We have India and Myanmar in our border and China is backing Myanmar. We need a powerful backer too. It's natural for us to be in US camp....with EU, Japan and others. Besides being in US camp have it's perks too.

 

[bd_4_ever]

I dont get why all discussions about US boils down to getting a bunch of F16s? There is much more to be gained from US in terms of military equipments, even if they decline selling us F-16s. Heck, having a military alliance with them will even open European/NATO platforms for us. We can then look at countries like France, Germany & Japan for arms, given we already have good relations with UK. Turkish options will be super available as well as Gripen will become up for grabs. We can easily negotiate a refusal for F-16s with permission to buy Gripen.

The timing of this proposal from US comes at a time when its too obvious. They are well aware that we are totally isolated regarding the Rohingya issue and that this did not leave a good impression about the Chinese within the political higher-ups and normal masses, further reinforced by Momen's meeting with Pompey and us looking for Turkish/European platforms. When such times strike, you learn who your true allies are.

Not to mention, US does have its own interests in mind. Nothing is free. What we now have to do is understand what they want in return and does that in any case hamper our stable economic growth and development goals. Because, notwithstanding all the hate, US is still the largest and the most influential economy on the planet. A few good deals and you could see US companies coming to Bangladesh with large investments, again a win-win.

You also need to have a long term thought-process. According to a news report few months ago, Bangladesh is now the 4th largest country from where graduate students go to study in US. These students mostly stay back and go to work in academic and industrial domain. Couple of generations down, expect to see few Bangladeshis in the US political arena too, just like in UK. All these will have benefits for us and having a foundation in place like such deals/agreements would help us leverage those benefits.

So there are perks to be had and this would be an opportunity too hard to ignore.

 

[Arthur]

I dont get why all discussions about US boils down to getting a bunch of F16s? There is much more to be gained from US in terms of military equipments, even if they decline selling us F-16s. Heck, having a military alliance with them will even open European/NATO platforms for us. We can then look at countries like France, Germany & Japan for arms, given we already have good relations with UK. Turkish options will be super available as well as Gripen will become up for grabs. We can easily negotiate a refusal for F-16s with permission to buy Gripen.

The timing of this proposal from US comes at a time when its too obvious. They are well aware that we are totally isolated regarding the Rohingya issue and that this did not leave a good impression about the Chinese within the political higher-ups and normal masses, further reinforced by Momen's meeting with Pompey and us looking for Turkish/European platforms. When such times strike, you learn who your true allies are.

Not to mention, US does have its own interests in mind. Nothing is free. What we now have to do is understand what they want in return and does that in any case hamper our stable economic growth and development goals. Because, notwithstanding all the hate, US is still the largest and the most influential economy on the planet. A few good deals and you could see US companies coming to Bangladesh with large investments, again a win-win.

You also need to have a long term thought-process. According to a news report few months ago, Bangladesh is now the 4th largest country from where graduate students go to study in US. These students mostly stay back and go to work in academic and industrial domain. Couple of generations down, expect to see few Bangladeshis in the US political arena too, just like in UK. All these will have benefits for us and having a foundation in place like such deals/agreements would help us leverage those benefits.

So there are perks to be had and this would be an opportunity too hard to ignore.

Very apt analysis, bhai. Cooperation with US has more opportunity even outside of military domain.

 

[24 Hours]

We have to obey every American demand anyway. So, I will not object any defence agreement with USA. Till now USA always helped and never harmed us (after they recognized us ofcourse)...

Eh I count cutting food aid for the trading with Cuba as harmful in the 70's as harmful

 

[bluesky]

Eh I count cutting food aid for the trading with Cuba as harmful in the 70's as harmful

It was certainly not trading. Both BD and Cuba were not trading nations at that time. It was politics. BD not only recognized Fidel Castro's Cuba but he also visited Dhaka.

BD had no food, all the BAL brats were hoarding the food items with money virtually stolen from the Banks. Salt price rose to Tk.80/kg. People were starving and the GoB requested the USA to help the country with emergency food aid.

America shipped one or two shiploads of rice (12,000 tons as far as I remember) but asked Dhaka to cut off the diplomatic relationship with Cuba. Dhaka did not heed this and the ships left the BoB without anchoring at Ctg. Port. As a result, about 400,000 people died of starvation.

It was BD which was biting the hand that was supposed to feed its hungry population. It was a delusion of BD that the USA would feed it free when it was bent on maintaining a close link with its enemy, Cuba.

It was all Tajuddin's socialist thinking that caused this event.

 

[24 Hours]

It was certainly not trading. Both BD and Cuba were not trading nations at that time. It was politics. BD not only recognized Fidel Castro's Cuba but he also visited Dhaka.

BD had no food, all the BAL brats were hoarding the food items with money virtually stolen from the Banks. Salt price rose to Tk.80/kg. People were starving and the GoB requested the USA to help the country with emergency food aid.

America shipped one or two shiploads of rice (12,000 tons as far as I remember) but asked Dhaka to cut off the diplomatic relationship with Cuba. Dhaka did not heed this and the ships left the BoB without anchoring at Ctg. Port. As a result, about 400,000 people died of starvation.

It was BD which was biting the hand that was supposed to feed its hungry population. It was a delusion of BD that the USA would feed it free when it was bent on maintaining a close link with its enemy, Cuba.

It was all Tajuddin's socialist thinking that caused this event.

Again a harmful action. Did we have military ties? No, America just wanted to push a new country around. In every way that is harmful act. Nothing else about it. It's using food aid as a bargain chip. Though AL certainly deserves a lot of flak for their massive corruption at the time, this does not excuse politicizing of needed food aid especially one of a very impoverished country.

I normally agree with much of what you have to say, but this is certainly not one of them.

 

[bluesky]

Again a harmful action. Did we have military ties? No, America just wanted to push a new country around. In every way that is harmful act. Nothing else about it. It's using food aid as a bargain chip. Though AL certainly deserves a lot of flak for their massive corruption at the time, this does not excuse politicizing of needed food aid especially one of a very impoverished country.

I normally agree with much of what you have to say, but this is certainly not one of them.

There are certain norms and rules in the international relations among the countries which must be followed. Was it not logical for BD to ask a million ton of FREE rice from Fidel Castro's Cuba instead of begging it from the USA? You cannot get both ways.

What bargain chip when Cuba cannot provide but the USA can. The Socialist Tajuddin preferred Cuba over the USA and caused hunger and death. He should have used his own bargaining chip and ask Cuba to donate rice. We cannot blame the USA for the misconduct by Tajuddin.