Newly-appointed Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who was on his eight-day official visit to Africa, made a “surprise” stop in Bangladesh. During what China’s Foreign Ministry described as a technical stopover, Qin Gang held a brief interaction with his Bangladeshi counterpart Abdul Kalam Abdul Momen. The meeting took place at the Dhaka airport itself. The brief and unscheduled meeting between Qin and Momen has alerted Indian diplomats who were already closely following the Chinese foreign minister’s Africa tour.
“This interaction that lasted not more than half an hour at the Dhaka airport is being viewed in New Delhi as part of new Chinese FM’s strategy to enhance diplomatic engagements with Bangladesh at large scale in days to come,” diplomatic sources told The Daily Guardian here on Wednesday.
“This cannot be dismissed as just a technical stopover, but it is the beginning of the implementation of China’s broader strategy to ramp up relations with Bangladesh,” sources added.
“There is no denying that increasing footprint in India’s neighbourhood has been the single most important part of China’s strategy, and Qin’s brief meeting with Momen signals Beijing’s future plan of action in that direction under Chinese President Xi Jinping’s third term,” says a diplomat. China watchers in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) believe that Bangladesh is one of the key countries where Beijing is seeking to boost its efforts afresh to expand influence, obviously keeping India in mind. “In days to come, a flurry of diplomatic visits from Beijing to Dhaka would be in sight,” sources said. “Qin may have set the stage for that. He must have sought time to meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as well,” sources added. Chen Zhou, Vice Minister of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (IDCPC) recently had a courtesy meeting with PM Hasina at Gonobhaban on Wednesday. This meeting is also being seen as a significant development in Bangladesh, sources said. That Bangladesh is a member of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is something that India cannot take lightly. She has been balancing relationships with both India and China.
PM Hasina has been seen walking a diplomatic tightrope whenever it came to making comments on ties with India and China. During her visit to India on September last year, Hasina, on China ties, had said that the common enemy of all of us is poverty India is also keeping a close eye on Qin’s trip to African nations where again Beijing has been trying to increase its influence by means of providing debt to some countries there in the name of projects. For 32 consecutive years, China has made a point of sending its foreign minister to Africa for the first diplomatic trip of the new year. Continuing the trend into 2023, Qin also scheduled visits to Ethiopia, Gabon, Angola, Benin, Egypt, the African Union Headquarters and the League of Arab States Headquarters from 9 to 16 January 2023.
“The two sides spoke highly of the friendship between China and Bangladesh, and agreed to strengthen exchanges in the new year and jointly work for new progress in bilateral relations,” said the Chinese foreign ministry. What is remarkable is that Qin’s first in-person meeting of the new year and his first such meeting since assuming office was with Bangladesh’s foreign minister.