Why did China’s new foreign minister suddenly reach Bangladesh overnight?

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China’s new Foreign Minister Qin Gang landed at Bangladesh’s Shah Jalal International Airport at midnight on his way to Africa on his first foreign tour last Monday.

Here he had a conversation with Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen for about an hour.

Let us tell you that the reason for the sudden stay of the Chinese Foreign Minister in Bangladesh is being told about the lack of fuel in the flight.

It is being said that his flight had to stop in Bangladesh for taking fuel. His Bangladesh tour is also being called unofficial.

But Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang has reached Bangladesh at a time when there are reports of conflict between Russia and the US Embassy in Dhaka.

The spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Bangladesh has told on Monday that Qin Gang is going to Africa on his first annual foreign trip after becoming the Finance Minister.

This is the 33rd consecutive year when the Chinese Foreign Minister is starting his annual foreign tour from Africa. It is believed that the Chinese Foreign Minister’s visit to Africa is part of China’s comprehensive African policy.

How important is Bangladesh to China?

International relations analysts say that the Chinese Foreign Minister’s stay in Dhaka amid such an important visit shows how important Bangladesh is becoming for China.

Former Ambassador of Bangladesh to China, Munshi Faiz Ahmed said that the Chinese Foreign Minister’s stay in Bangladesh for some time gives a special signal, but the matter is not just that. There is also a question as to why instead of going through any other route, he was going to Africa only via Bangladesh.

According to Ahmed, this shows that China is taking the issues related to Bangladesh seriously. Because of this, it was decided to stay in Bangladesh during the tour of Africa.

Please tell that China is the biggest economic partner of Bangladesh.

strategic importance of the standoff

Dr. Lalufar Yasmin, Professor, Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka, said, “A few days ago it was said in the media that Bangladesh is the site of the cold war between Russia and America because Bangladesh is very important for China from the geo-political point of view. .”

The importance of China has also been underlined from Bangladesh side in different ways.

Yasmin says, “These efforts can be understood from various travels and relationships.”

Bangladesh is trying to give importance to those areas where it is needed. Along with this, China is also paying attention to the needs of Bangladesh.

Yasmin believes that this visit of Chinese Foreign Minister is very important strategically and this message is being given not only to Bangladesh but also to the rest of the world.

“We want to assure the rest of the world that Bangladesh is important to China,” he said.

What happened in China-Bangladesh?

After the meeting at the airport, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told reporters that China has given around 82 lakh covid vaccines to Bangladesh.

Bangladesh exports goods worth about $800 million to China. At the same time, it imports goods worth 13 billion dollars from China.

Talking to the media at the airport, Momen has said that China is helping Bangladesh in several projects, including Padma Setu and Rail Project.

Along with this, he said, ‘Bangladesh believes in the ‘One China’ policy. We believe in having a balanced foreign policy and this is our basic principle. We will continue to extend our support to China from time to time.

Momen has told that during the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Bangladesh in the year 2016, several financial agreements were negotiated between the two countries.

Along with this, he has said that ‘the Chinese Foreign Minister has invited him to come to China, but on this it has been said from our side that you first come to Bangladesh on a formal tour, then we will talk about our issues’.

‘Mobile Diplomacy’

However, this is not the first time that a foreign minister or president has suddenly stopped at the Bangladesh airport.

Earlier in January 2017, former Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had made a one-hour stopover at Dhaka’s Shahjalal International Airport during his visit to Africa.

In February 2016, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stopped at Dhaka airport on his way to Japan. At that time he had also received an invitation to visit Bangladesh.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has also stopped at Dhaka airport several times.

Yasmin said in this regard, in the current era, diplomatic activities have become very fast and leaders of big countries make such short visits.

Professor Yasmin says, “China’s foreign minister has given this importance to Bangladesh only after taking over. This shows how important Bangladesh is to China’s South Asian equation, and this stopover can be seen as an illustration of that.”

Yasmin has told that China specializes in mobile diplomacy which has started some time back all over the world and this effort of China is to speed up such diplomatic activities.