Bangladesh foreign minister Dr AKA Momen’s latest spin on the new visa policy announced by Washington on May 24 is interesting. He said that it would adversely affect only rich businessmen and government servants. This was another spin by the Awami League leaders to make light of the new US visa policy. It is now palpably evident however that Washington has not targeted any regime in recent times as it has targeted the Awami League regime with its new visa policy.
The foreign minister’s latest statement is interesting because he has helped the US Treasury which is the lead US Department for dealing with US sanctions on foreign countries. The US Treasury is at present reviewing the US policy of sanctions as a weapon for realizing the US strategic and foreign policy goals to find out whether they harm the poor people in the sanctioned countries instead of the regime and its leaders they target. Dr Momen has unwittingly answered one major US Treasury concern. The new US visa policy would not harm the majority of Bangladeshis!
The new US visa policy, nevertheless, is extremely important for Bangladesh’s national interests however unpleasant it may be for the country. Spinning it contrary to its objectives that are now palpably evident would harm these interests. The mandarins at the Bangladesh foreign ministry generally appear to have misunderstood the message of the new US visa policy. They have failed to consider that a visa policy is the right of the country that makes it and not the right of those to whom it applies. For the latter, it is a privilege.
These mandarins at the foreign affairs ministry in particular and the Awami League regime should have seen the new US visa policy and its potential danger coming and should have prepared the country accordingly. They did not. Washington gave these signs clearly, first by excluding Bangladesh from President Biden’s 110-nation Democracy Summit; second, by sanctioning RAB for ‘serious human rights violations’ and, finally, by sending several high-profile delegations to Dhaka.
The mandarins at the foreign affairs ministry set these signs aside, perhaps believing in the following: First, the United States would back the Awami League regime to keep it from going to the Chinese camp completely. Second, India would also back the Awami League regime on the China factor and work with the United States to give the Awami League another term for their respective strategic interests. Finally, the United States would back the Awami League also because of the importance of the Bay of Bengal and its strategic interests there, for which the Awami League regime would be its best choice.
These strategic beliefs, unfortunately, are partially or largely flawed. The Bay of Bengal is not Bangladesh’s backyard, its strategic importance notwithstanding. It would be naive to assume that Bangladesh could use the Bay of Bengal against present-day China, least of all by giving any strategic advantage there to the United States. The US itself would be against it because it has in recent times expressed that it has no intention of provoking China militarily in the region. The Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, IPS, is a clear message of its intentions about not getting militarily involved in the region.
India, for its own interests, wants the Awami League to be in power indefinitely because the AL has fulfilled its interests to the brim. India has also reasons of history to back the Awami League in power. However, India is no longer in the position it was in before Bangladesh’s 2008, 2014 and 2018 elections to enforce its will in the politics of Bangladesh. The US, its allies, and the UN had backed it to the tilt to keep the Awami League in power and keep the BNP out on the issue of Islamic terrorism. These are different times. Islam is off the radar.
Democracy and human and election rights are now the issues that the US, its allies and the UN are pursuing worldwide, including in South Asia, which they believe are in peril in Bangladesh under the Awami League regime. India would have to go against these issues to back the AL in the present-day politics of Bangladesh. India is thus in a very uncomfortable position over the fluid and uncertain political situation in Bangladesh.
The Awami League regime has, meanwhile, complicated the situation further by bringing its fight with the US and its allies and the UN to its doorsteps through a row with their diplomats over their diplomatic privileges under the Vienna Convention. Dhaka is already on a sticky wicket on diplomatic security. Two US ambassadors, including Ambassador Haas and a former British high commissioner, have been victims of serious breaches of diplomatic security. The foreign affairs ministry has now decided to reduce the security detail for the US and several high-profile ambassadors. The ministry asked them to hire additional security details from the Ansar Force. The Ansar would not be the force of choice for protecting high-profile Bangladeshis. Hence, recommending Ansar for these high-profile ambassadors, whose security has been given the highest importance under the Vienna Convention by making it inviolable, suggests something seriously amiss.
The state minister for foreign affairs, meanwhile, cautioned that action would be taken against ambassadors who ‘cross the line’ and ‘meddle’ in Bangladesh’s ‘internal affairs’. His statement came after the new Japanese ambassador visited the Election Commission and met the BNP. Article 41(1) of the Vienna Convention prohibits diplomats from interfering in the host country’s internal affairs. This provision, however, is not easy to implement without damaging bilateral relations. Hence, it has seldom been used.
Ambassador Peter Haas is at the epicenter of the ongoing diplomatic row in Dhaka because the AL regime is unhappy with the role of the United States in Bangladesh, which the prime minister believes is directed against her regime. The Awami League, perhaps unwittingly, is fighting the United States to remain in power and not just the BNP-led opposition, a tall order under any circumstances.
The foreign ministry of Bangladesh is supposed to enhance and strengthen Bangladesh’s foreign relations through diplomacy. It has instead landed Bangladesh in diplomatic quicksand against the most powerful nations, whose support and goodwill are indispensable for Bangladesh’s economic development. Making light of the new US visa policy, in which vital national interests are involved, is therefore not good or matured diplomacy.
*The writer is a former Bangladesh career ambassador.
June 12, 2023
The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of Aequitas Review.
