Sheikh Hasina’s Royal Bengal diplomacy

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has offered a pair of Royal Bengal Tigers to Japan so that Japanese people, especially school children, can become acquainted with the nature and culture of Bangladesh.

The gesture came as Bangladesh and Japan have agreed to take their bilateral relationship to a new height after the prime ministers of both countries launched the Japan-Bangladesh Comprehensive Partnership Agreement.

“Both the prime ministers also decided to detail the modalities at the earliest,” said a joint statement issued by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
and her Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, after they had an official talk on Monday.

The prime minister went to Tokyo on a four-day visit on Sunday at the invitation of Abe and had an audience with Japanese Emperor Akihito.

The Japanese prime minister announced his commitment to provide up to 600 billion Yen (equivalent to $6 billion) of additional financial assistance, of which120 billion Yen (equivalent to $1.2 billion) will be given to Bangladesh within the next four or five years.

Prime Minister Hasina asked her counterpart to consider a range of specific projects like a Ganges Barrage, building multi-modal tunnels under the Jamuna River, a railway bridge over the Jamuna River, a multi-modal Dhaka Eastern Bypass, and the ecological restoration of four rivers around Dhaka.

Abe expressed his decision to instruct relevant ministries to start reviewing rules of origin of generalised system of preferences (GSP) for knitwear in order to boost Bangladesh’s exports.

The Japanese prime minister underscored the urgency of an improvement of investment potentials in Bangladesh, including infrastructure development and stable energy supply, in order to further facilitate and promote Japanese investment in Bangladesh.

The two prime ministers also welcomed the memorandum of understanding signed between JETRO and Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority, which reserves important facilities in five EPZs in Bangladesh for Japanese investors.

They reaffirmed the importance of strengthening energy cooperation, including in the area of peaceful uses of nuclear energy as a stable energy supply, stating that it is the key in the economic development of Bangladesh.

Hasina also expressed her hope that Japan will examine the possibility of cooperating with Bangladesh for a nuclear power plant project in the future.

Japan has highly efficient and environment-friendly coal-based power plant technology and Bangladesh underlined the need for that to be made available to the countries in need.

The two prime ministers shared their intent to discuss and promote wider regional development and improve the investment environment to attract foreign businesses, including from Japan.

Hasina reaffirmed Bangladesh’s support for Japan’s aspiration to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council while Abe expressed his intention to share Japan’s experience, including dispatching experts for the proposed project of establishing a Peace Building Centre in Bangladesh.

“The two prime ministers shared the importance of an early reform of the United Nations Security Council so as to reflect contemporary geo-political realities,” the statement said.