How Macron’s visit can strengthen Bangladesh-France ties

French President Emmanuel Macron is visiting Bangladesh tomorrow, which is a milestone for Bangladesh-France bilateral relations. Previously, French President Francois Mitterrand visited the country in February 1990, and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina went to France multiple times, including in 1999, 2017 and 2021, to strengthen Dhaka-Paris ties. In 2021, the two countries signed a letter of intent on defence cooperation, and according to a statement issued by the French president’s office, both nations agreed to strengthen dialogue and continue their cooperation.

This upcoming visit is significant for several reasons. Primarily, it will provide a great opportunity to steer relations into a new direction, as the impacts of better ties matter to millions of people of the two countries. To achieve this, both countries can map out new areas of cooperation, with one possible priority area being the blue economy. Bangladesh collaborated with the European Union in a technical project titled EU-BGD Joint Collaboration on Blue Economy, which ran from August 2016 to July 2018. It is argued that the blue economy cannot be developed, even partially, without cooperation, collaboration and mutual trust among neighbours (Sakhuja and Banerjee, 2020, Pg 127). Therefore, the visit can be utilised to promote cooperation in this area.

According to a press release of the French embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh is seen as an important partner of France in addressing global issues such as climate change. For instance, Bangladesh played a leading role in the Paris Climate Accords. The Dhaka-Paris cooperation on climate change issues needs to be boosted for the millions of climate-vulnerable people in the world, including the people in Bangladesh.

The press release adds, “In Bangladesh, the President of the French Republic will continue to implement France’s strategy in the Indo-Pacific region…” We know that major powers are focusing on the region due to its growing relevance, and Bangladesh has become a key player. The upcoming visit can be an opportunity to promote cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region – focusing on maritime security issues, deep sea fishing, tackling illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and addressing dead zones in the Bay of Bengal.

Apart from all this, the visit can help improve bilateral trade and commerce. The history of trading and commercial ties between the two countries dates back to the 17th century, when the French maintained good economic relations with Bengal, the latter being the hub of regional trade and commerce. The volume of bilateral trade in 2021 amounted to $3.3 billion, with a massive trade surplus in favour of Bangladesh. France is the fifth largest importer of Bangladeshi goods worldwide, and third within the EU. However, there are scopes for further promoting the economic ties.

Another important area of interest is cooperation in migration. According to the International Organization of Migration (IOM), 12,878 Bangladeshi migrants – 6,296 men and 6,582 women – were recorded in France in 2021. This number can go even higher. According to a report in The New York Times, nearly 400,000 jobs are vacant in construction, transportation, nursing and agriculture sectors in France. Thus, exporting manpower to France can be an area of discussion during Macron’s visit.

While in discussion, Bangladesh can even ask France’s help to resolve the Rohingya crisis. The former has been hosting more than a million Rohingya refugees, and prolonging the repatriation process will complicate the crisis further.

We also need to consider people-to-people contact for promoting Bangladesh-France relations. Under the leadership of renowned French thinker and philosopher André Malraux, the people of France came forward to mobilise international opinion in favour of Bangladesh during the Liberation War in 1971. Taking historical ties into account, we need to boost the flow of knowledge and culture. For instance, the volume of scholarship for Bangladeshi students at French universities needs to increase.

Finally, both Bangladesh and France share similar values at the global forum. Therefore, both can strengthen their global partnership to promote the greater cause of humanity. Due to the impacts of the Russian-Ukraine war and Covid-19, people around the world are suffering. Against such a backdrop, a humane world order based on the well-being of people needs to be promoted, and to do this, both Bangladesh and France can play a leading role by joining hands.

Dr Md Shariful Islam is an associate professor of international relations at Rajshahi University. He can be reached at shariful_ruir@ru.ac.bd.

Views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

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