By Krishna N. Das<\/p>\n
DHAKA, Feb 11 (Reuters) \u2013 The United States is concerned about China\u2019s expanding presence in South Asia and is planning to offer Bangladesh\u2019s next government U.S. and allied defence systems as alternatives to Chinese hardware, Washington\u2019s ambassador to Dhaka told Reuters.<\/p>\n
Bangladesh votes in a general election on Thursday after \u200ba Gen Z-led uprising toppled India-allied premier Sheikh Hasina in August 2024. She has since taken refuge \u200cin New Delhi, allowing China to deepen its influence in Bangladesh as India\u2019s presence wanes.<\/p>\n
China recently signed a defence agreement with Bangladesh to build a drone factory near the India border, worrying foreign diplomats. Bangladesh is also in talks with Pakistan to buy JF-17 Thunder fighter jets, a multi-role combat aircraft jointly developed with China.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States is concerned about growing Chinese influence in South Asia and is committed to \u200cworking closely \u200bwith the Bangladeshi government to clearly communicate the risks of certain types of \u2060engagement with China,\u201d U.S. Ambassador Brent \u2060T. Christensen said in an interview on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe U.S. offers a range of options to help Bangladesh meet its military capability needs, including U.S. systems and those from allied partners, to provide alternatives to Chinese systems,\u201d he said without offering further details.<\/p>\n
The Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Christensen also said \u200bthat President Donald Trump\u2019s administration would \u201clike to see a good relationship between Bangladesh and India to support stability in the region\u201d.<\/p>\n
New Delhi-Dhaka relations have nosedived since Hasina fled, badly affecting visa services and cricket ties between the two neighbours.<\/p>\n
COMMERCIAL \u2060DIPLOMACY IS PRIORITY<\/p>\n
Christensen said many U.S. businesses were looking at potentially investing \u2060in Bangladesh but would want the next government to show early and clear signs that \u200bit is \u201copen for business\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cCommercial diplomacy is one of our top priorities, and we look forward to working with the new \u200bgovernment to build on progress made with the interim government, particularly in strengthening commercial, economic, and \u200csecurity ties,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Energy producer Chevron has been in Bangladesh for decades but not many other U.S. companies are visible in the densely populated country of 175 million people, as high taxes and difficulties repatriating profits have created some hurdles.<\/p>\n
There are no Starbucks or McDonald\u2019s outlets in Bangladesh.<\/p>\n
The envoy said Washington would work with \u201cwhichever government is elected by the Bangladeshi people\u201d. The \u2060race is between two coalitions led by former allies, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Islamist Jamaat\u2011e\u2011Islami, with opinion polls suggesting the BNP holds an advantage.<\/p>\n
AID FOR ROHINGYA REFUGEES<\/p>\n
Regarding the 1.2 million Rohingya refugees sheltered in Bangladesh, the ambassador said \u2060the United States remained the largest contributor \u200cto humanitarian operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe U.S. remains the largest contributor to the Rohingya refugee response and \u2060continues robust health programming in Bangladesh,\u201d he said, noting a recent $2 billion worldwide funding framework \u200bsigned with \u200cthe United Nations to improve the effectiveness of such assistance, including in Bangladesh.<\/p>\n
He \u200burged other international \u2060donors to take on a greater share of the burden.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe U.S. cannot sustain the bulk of the effort alone. International partners need to increase their support for the Rohingya response,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In recent years, the U.N. refugee agency has been struggling to raise sufficient funds to support the Rohingya community, leading to cuts in their rations and the closure of some schools for them.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Krishna N. Das in Dhaka; Additional reporting by Ryan Woo in Beijing and Tora Agarwala and Zia Chowdhury in \u200bDhaka; Editing by Saad Sayeed)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Krishna N. Das DHAKA, Feb 11 (Reuters) \u2013 The United States is concerned about China\u2019s expanding presence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-461878","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}