The United States will officially hand over a naval ship to Bangladesh in a reflagging ceremony in California on May 23.
According to a media release, the US Coast Guard will officially decommission ‘Cutter Jarvis’ and transfer it to the Bangladesh Navy after renaming it as ‘BNS Somudro Joy’, in a ceremony at around 11 pm Bangladesh time at Coast Guard Island in Alameda, California.
Once transferred, this would be the largest ship in the Bangladesh Navy.
Pacific Area Commander Vice Admiral Paul F. Zukunft and Bangladesh’s Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Muhammad Farid Habib will be present during the formal handover.
Jarvis is being transferred “as an Excess Defense Articles (EDA) through a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programme to Bangladesh,” the media release said.
The BNS Somudro Joy will depart for Bangladesh later this year, it said.
A 20-member Bangladesh naval team is in Alameda for the ceremony.
Earlier US officials say the ship would be gifted as part of its keenness to develop a stronger naval relationship for the maritime ‘peace and stability’ in the Asia-Pacific region.
US Ambassador to Dhaka Dan Mozena earlier said it would take several months of continued outfitting of the vessel and training of the crew after the transfer of the ship to Bangladesh Navy.
The ‘Jarvis’ sailed in the Pacific and served the US since 1972. It was decommissioned in Oct last year.
Training is underway for Bangladeshi naval officials in US to manage the ship.
Source: bd news24
“US to hand over a naval ship to Bangladesh” – is this an euphemism to say that Bangladesh under BAL has indeed given a base to the USA?
If this indeed is the case and I get this horrible suspicion that this indeed is, then you will notice Hasina all of a sudden is getting portrayed by the so-called freedom loving media of the West as the champion of democracy and a crusader of secularism against “Islamic” terrorism etc. etc. in South Asia.
You will notice that these days Ambassador Mozena, the US Ambassador in Bangladesh is no more interested in pushing dialogue for a Care Taker government. But this recent lack of interest has not seemed to have waned his enthusiasm to criticize opposition’s activism that His Excellency refers to as “opposition violence”. He seems to have suddenly lost his sight on police brutality and numerous other human rights abuses that BAL government’s thuggish law enforcement agencies and its civilian gangs are carrying out on dissenting opposition, on a daily basis.
Truth is and thanks to our self-seeking politicians and due to us lackeys of our rubbish leaders Bangladesh is in for a long period of remote occupation and local subjugation.
Hasina now has the imperialist ticket to loot, plunder and murder its people at will.