US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu visited Bangladesh last week. When Lu visited Bangladesh last year, he was beating the US drum for ‘democracy’ ahead of elections that were expected to favour Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the ruling Awami League. The mood was different last time.
Washington had threatened visa restrictions on officials ‘suspected of obstructing a free vote’. But Hasina was elected for a fourth consecutive term in an election boycotted by the Islamist opposition. Both the US and the UK criticised the elections as ‘not free and fair’.
However, the US appears to have changed its stance on the Hasina government, which it sees as close to China. Lu returned to Dhaka this month with a very different message, focusing on strengthening economic ties and tackling climate change.
Unlike his visit in 2023, the diplomat also skipped meetings with opposition leaders and ‘rights groups’ in a country that Washington has previously said is ‘rapidly sliding into authoritarianism’.
It seems that the United States has, however reluctantly, accepted the reality on the ground and hit the reset button on the relationship,’ Ali Riaz, a professor of politics and government at Illinois State University, told Nikkei Asia.
After a meeting with Bangladesh’s foreign minister, Lu acknowledged that Washington’s earlier warnings about the elections had raised tensions and stressed the need to ‘move forward’ and ‘rebuild trust’.
Bangladesh’s state minister for information and broadcasting, Mohammad Ali Arafat, said of Lu’s three-day visit: ‘I can say that during Lu’s trip, he focused on talking about economic partnership and Bangladesh’s role in the US Indo-Pacific policy. There was no discussion about the opposition, democracy, human rights, politics or elections.
Analysts say Bangladesh is one of the biggest exporters of garments to the US and Washington sees the country of 164 million, sandwiched between India and Myanmar, as a valuable ally in its efforts to contain China’s growing regional influence.
Just a month after the January election, which Washington contested, US President Joe Biden sent a letter to Hasina expressing a ‘sincere desire’ to work together on a range of issues and to ‘partner … in our shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific’.
‘The United States attaches increasing strategic importance to Bangladesh at a time of heightened great power rivalry,’ said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Centre in Washington. It sees Bangladesh as a strategic state bordering the Indian Ocean and one that has strengthened its ties with Beijing while maintaining a close relationship with New Delhi,’ Kugelman told Nikkei.
But a week after Lu’s May 14-16 visit, the US government sanctioned retired Bangladeshi army chief Aziz Ahmed and his immediate family on corruption charges.
The Ahmed case is a reminder that US policy in Bangladesh has not put aside the values element,’ said Kugelman: ‘But I wouldn’t exaggerate the impact on the relationship. This is a fairly light punishment – much lighter than economic sanctions – and it targets a retired military leader, not the current government.
Illinois State’s Riaz said Washington wants to exert some influence over the Bangladeshi government while prioritising its commercial and geopolitical interests.
It seems that these concerns are pushing the US to work on the low-hanging fruit and avoid strained relations in the near future,’ Riaz added.
