China offers not only ‘basket of money’ but also ‘affordable’ proposals: Momen

Foreign minister AK Abdul Momen has said China has come forward with a “basket of money” along with “aggressive and affordable” proposals amid Bangladesh’s growing infrastructure need when help from many countries is “declining”.

However, Indian external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar laid emphasis on making an “informed decision” and cited the problems that they have seen in some countries in the region.

The foreign ministers of Bangladesh and India came up with their views during a panel discussion titled ‘A Sea Change: Regional Order and Security in the Indo-Pacific’ on the second day (Saturday) of the Munich Security Conference 2022.

Momen further said Bangladesh is doing “pretty well” in terms of economic development and since Bangladesh is doing pretty well, the aspirations of common people have also gone up.

“They want more facilities and more opportunities for their better life and there’s a demand for more infrastructure facilities in the country. But we don’t have money. Neither do we’ve technology,” said the foreign minister.

He said the government need to have further development to face this public demand while help from many countries is declining.

The Bangladesh foreign minister thanked Japan saying they are one of the best friends and the country is investing in Bangladesh’s infrastructure.

He also thanked India with remarks that the country has been giving line of credit to Bangladesh for various projects.

Momen also said the development process is going on in Bangladesh in line with people’s demand for more infrastructure development.

“And there we need a completion. We need more funding from our development partners,” he said, adding that unfortunately they come with a lot of strings making things very difficult.

The foreign minister said till today Bangladesh borrowed maximum loans from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Addressing the discussion, Momen’s Indian counterpart Jaishankar said international relations are “competitive” and every country will look for opportunities and see what it can do.

“But while doing so, it’s in their own interest to be prudent and do due diligence about what they are getting into… we’ve seen now countries, including in our region, being saddled with large debts, we’ve seen projects which are commercially unsustainable, airports where aircraft doesn’t come, harbours where ship doesn’t come. I think people would be justified and ask themselves what I am getting into,” said the Indian external affairs minister.

He said it is in the interest of the country concerned and also in the interest of the international community because unsustainable projects do not end there. “There’re real concerns over there.”

“I think it’s very important that all of us make an informed decision but of course a very competitive decision,” said Jaishankar.

The four-day (18-20 February) 58th Munich Security Conference (MSC) is scheduled to end Sunday at its usual venue in Munich, the Hotel Bayerischer Hof.