After India, Bangladesh is now planning to form an alliance with China to tap the marine resources in the Bay of Bengal. “We received a Chinese proposal on Wednesday to forge an alliance on blue economy,” a senior Foreign Ministry official said, seeking anonymity. Bangladesh and India signed a memorandum of understanding on blue economy and maritime cooperation in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean on June 6 in the presence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi. “We are now scrutinising the proposal and hope to come to a conclusion as soon as possible,” the official said. Bangladesh also wants to form a bloc comprising regional littoral states to cooperate in the field of blue economy. These states are Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Indonesia and Malaysia. The MoU is mainly on skill development, capacity building, pollution response, tsunami and cyclone warning and fishing among other things. “We incorporated the harmless issues and dropped the thorny or sensitive issue such as security,” said another Foreign Ministry official. Bangladesh does not have much knowledge about marine bio-technology unlike India who has advanced knowledge in this field, and Dhaka can benefit from sharing, he said. Medicines such as cod liver oil, cosmetics and toiletries can be produced with marine resources but Bangladesh lacks investment in the sector. Fishing is another area where both Bangladesh and India can cooperate as the former lacks deep sea fishing capacities, the official said. “Bangladesh has sovereign right to fish in up to 200 nautical miles but the vessels can go up to only 40 nautical miles,” he said. The deep sea has massive untapped fishing resources but Bangladesh has been unable to tap it, he said. The joint statement issued during Narendra Modi’s visit to Dhaka said that the two prime ministers had expressed satisfaction at the amicable settlement of the maritime boundary issue. “To harness the vast economic opportunities this has opened up, they agreed to work closely on the development of ocean-based Blue Economy and maritime cooperation in the Bay of Bengal and chart out the ways for future cooperation,” the statement said. About the deal with China on marine cooperation, the official said it would be like what Bangladesh has with India. “We will cooperation in the harmless areas like what we have with India while security and other thorny issues will not be included in the deal with China,” he added. Bangladesh settled maritime boundary disputes with India in 2014 and with Myanmar in 2012. Bangladesh now has sovereign authority over a 118,000 sq-km area in the Bay.
