Dhaka weighs GDI’s importance

Later, Momen told the reporters that Bangladesh will assess China’s invitation.

Two weeks after the meeting, Beijing sent a diplomatic letter to Bangladesh. In the letter, China gave an account of all the steps they had undertaken with their associates to implement the GDI.

Essentially, under GDI, steps were taken for health preservation, food and fuel security, information and technology development, skill development, blue economy and forestation.

On 21 September, 2021, Chinese president Xi Jinping officially announced GDI during a session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

He said the world has to work together to ensure a balanced, integrated and participatory development process. He further said that GDI has been formatted to accomplish this and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

On 1 September, an inter-ministerial meeting was held at the foreign ministry regarding the prospect of joining GDI. Secretary (east) of the foreign ministry Mashfee Binte Shams presided over the meeting.

Mashfee told Prothom Alo, “We have held preliminary talks about the many aspects of GDI. We will hold several more discussions and then decide our stance over the different aspects and their necessity.”

A senior official of the ministry said, China has already created a forum named Friends of GDI. Till now, 60 countries have joined the forum, most of which are from Asia, Africa and Latin America. The US and other western countries are not part of the forum.

China wants Bangladesh to join this forum.

The official said, Beijing sent a diplomatic letter to Dhaka in August regarding GDI. Last month, senior officials of the foreign ministry had a meeting with the Chinese ambassador Li Jiming about GDI.

In the meeting, the Chinese ambassador was told that the majority of the steps mentioned in GDI are already present in SDG. He was also asked about the necessity of having two initiatives for the same goals.

In reply, the Chinese ambassador said the coronavirus pandemic rocked the entire world. In such changed circumstances, to ensure economic progress and development, integrated initiatives have to be taken. He also said that there is no other alternative to emphasising the aspects like health, fuel, environment and the supply chain.

In the meeting, he was further asked why any western nation hasn’t joined the GDI and whether China is trying to form GDI without any western countries.

To this the Chinese ambassador replied that China wants every country to join this initiative and has invited each and every nation to join the GDI.

International relations specialists said that China has decided to go ahead with GDI to strengthen its political stance in the global development process after the Covid-19 pandemic. Indirectly, China is telling the world that the insufficiencies of SDG will be made up for by the GDI.

Former Bangladesh ambassador to China Munshi Faiz Ahmed on Tuesday told Prothom Alo, “If China or any other country takes an initiative like GDI, Bangladesh should join. There are no harmful elements in this initiative.

“If Bangladesh joins early on, it could play an active and important role. And China had nothing to do with the western nations not joining the initiative. China invited every country to join.”

*This report appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Ashfaq-Ul-Alam Niloy