Bangladesh-UK to hold first defence dialogue in March

[Isa Khan]

Bangladesh will hold its first ever defence dialogue with the UK in March this year as the two countries seek to take the bilateral relationship to a strategic level for the shared objectives of prosperity and security.

Bangladesh High Commission said this during a virtual commemorative event on Friday to celebrate Bangladesh-UK 50 years of diplomatic relations.

Bangladesh High Commissioner to the UK, Saida Muna Tasneem, said Dhaka and London are discussing various ways of strengthening cooperation including defence, security, trade and climate change.

She said, "Bangladesh's geostrategic importance in the Bay of Bengal and in the Indian Ocean complemented by its growing economic prosperity over the past decade makes it a deserving candidate to become Britain's trusted friend and ally in realising the region's sustainable peace, security and prosperity."

During Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to London in November last year, the issue of defence purchase was discussed with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

At that time, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen had told this correspondent that Bangladesh decided in principle to buy five naval ships from the UK with the objectives being monitoring and protecting Bangladesh's huge sea frontiers from others who enter the territories for fishing or other purposes.

He also said that two of the naval ships will be built in Bangladesh with technical support from the UK.

At the event on Friday, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam said Bangladesh was diversifying its defence purchase from mainly Asian countries to the Western countries.

Senior Fellow for South Asia of the International Institute for Strategic Studies Rahul Roy Chaudhury said UK government needs to significantly increase its security, defence, counter terrorism, counter extremism, counter radicalisation, and intelligence cooperation with Bangladesh.

UK FCDO Minister for South and Central Asia Lord Ahmad said the UK has stood by Bangladesh for the past 50 years through good times and bad times and will continue to remain its trusted friend and partner also in the next 50 years.

Rushanara Ali, MP, chair of the UK's All-Party Parliamentary Group on Bangladesh and UK's Trade Envoy for Bangladesh; Lord Karan Bilimoria, president of the Confederation of British Industry among others spoke.

Bangladesh-UK to hold first defence dialogue in March

Bangladesh will hold its first ever defence dialogue with the UK in March this year as the two countries seek to take the bilateral relationship to a strategic level for the shared objectives of prosperity and security.

www.thedailystar.net

 

[F-6 enthusiast]

Bangladesh will hold its first ever defence dialogue with the UK in March this year as the two countries seek to take the bilateral relationship to a strategic level for the shared objectives of prosperity and security.

Bangladesh High Commission said this during a virtual commemorative event on Friday to celebrate Bangladesh-UK 50 years of diplomatic relations.

Bangladesh High Commissioner to the UK, Saida Muna Tasneem, said Dhaka and London are discussing various ways of strengthening cooperation including defence, security, trade and climate change.

She said, "Bangladesh's geostrategic importance in the Bay of Bengal and in the Indian Ocean complemented by its growing economic prosperity over the past decade makes it a deserving candidate to become Britain's trusted friend and ally in realising the region's sustainable peace, security and prosperity."

During Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to London in November last year, the issue of defence purchase was discussed with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

At that time, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen had told this correspondent that Bangladesh decided in principle to buy five naval ships from the UK with the objectives being monitoring and protecting Bangladesh's huge sea frontiers from others who enter the territories for fishing or other purposes.

He also said that two of the naval ships will be built in Bangladesh with technical support from the UK.

At the event on Friday, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam said Bangladesh was diversifying its defence purchase from mainly Asian countries to the Western countries.

Senior Fellow for South Asia of the International Institute for Strategic Studies Rahul Roy Chaudhury said UK government needs to significantly increase its security, defence, counter terrorism, counter extremism, counter radicalisation, and intelligence cooperation with Bangladesh.

UK FCDO Minister for South and Central Asia Lord Ahmad said the UK has stood by Bangladesh for the past 50 years through good times and bad times and will continue to remain its trusted friend and partner also in the next 50 years.

Rushanara Ali, MP, chair of the UK's All-Party Parliamentary Group on Bangladesh and UK's Trade Envoy for Bangladesh; Lord Karan Bilimoria, president of the Confederation of British Industry among others spoke.

Bangladesh-UK to hold first defence dialogue in March

Bangladesh will hold its first ever defence dialogue with the UK in March this year as the two countries seek to take the bilateral relationship to a strategic level for the shared objectives of prosperity and security.

www.thedailystar.net

Q1. Can CAMM-ER be quadpacked ?
Q2. also how many VLS can we put in Arrowhead 140. their website says 32 cell VLS , but on the scale models i can count 16 ? (maybe it can be customised)
Q3 What are the Chances of Typhoon now ? very low ?
Q4. 5 ships , is it the navy frigate or OPV ?

 

[Isa Khan]

Q1. Can CAMM-ER be quadpacked ?
Q2. also how many VLS can we put in Arrowhead 140. their website says 32 cell VLS , but on the scale models i can count 16 ? (maybe it can be customised)
Q3 What are the Chances of Typhoon now ? very low ?
Q4. 5 ships , is it the navy frigate or OPV ?

1. No
2. Up to 32 VLS. You can choose from 16/24/32 vls configuration. Check the last page of frigate program.
3. Unless we see anything 100% confirmed, there's still chance.
4. 99% chance it's OPV as the report says they'll be built in CDDL. The dockyard is not ready to build frigate now IMO. Only OPV tender was issued by CDDL.

 

[F-6 enthusiast]

3. Unless we see anything 100% confirmed, there's still chance.

i'm Still hoping even after signing the deal with France

 

[Isa Khan]

i'm Still hoping even after signing the deal with France

That was just LoI. That doesn't dictate we're buying Rafale. Sending engineers to France means nothing actually IMO. We did the same for J-10 before. Did it materialize? No. We turned the decade old MRCA program into joke with discussions. speculations and rumors. We left no option to discuss. Every time we see something, we start jumping about it. This is why trolls get chance. We should wait for confirmation from official source.

 

[Isa Khan]

Bangladesh and the UK are holding their first ever defence dialogue from Wednesday in Dhaka. British High Commission Robert Dickson talks to Prothom Alo about the issues likely to be discussed

Q: Which issues will feature in the defence dialogue between Bangladesh and the UK?

A: I'm very pleased that the first ever defence dialogue will take place on 2 March in Dhaka which we hoped to take place last year. Since travel was not possible because of Covid-19, it was delayed. It is designed to discuss three things. Firstly, there is an opportunity to share views about regional security and about international security obviously as it is a very live issue at the moment it is an opportunity to discuss the issue.

Secondly, it is an opportunity to talk about capability. We've a long standing relationship with the Bangladesh Armed Forces. We have provided a lot of training. Our armed forces work together particularly in the UN peacekeeping and we have a common interest of learning from each other about working together for enhancing military capacity.

And the third thing is that we have a very good relationship with Bangladesh in terms of selling military equipment. Earlier, Bangladesh naval equipment was largely procured from the Royal Navy in the UK. Recently we've sold military transport aircraft C-130 to Bangladesh of which the forth one arrived this week. So we will look to friends of Bangladesh Armed Forces whether we can do more because they told us they are keen to buy better quality arms in the future. Obviously we would be happy if we could help Bangladesh.

Q: Since international security is one of the key elements of discussion, will the current situation of Afghanistan feature in the meeting? What role do you want to see from Bangladesh on this issue?

A: Obviously Afghanistan is part of it. But from the wider regional security issue, we are seriously concerned about what is happening in Myanmar. There is a wider range of instability in the region and I suppose if you look at the international scene, at the instability caused by what Russia has done, it has immediate effect in Europe and it has a global impact.

There is a lot of interest in the Indo-Pacific Region. Different countries put forward their strategies. We have our own integrated review that was published last year which has an Indo-Pacific dimension. This is a part of the world where there is a lot of interest and it is a good opportunity as friends to sit down and look at how that affects us. There will be quite a wide range of issues to be discussed.

Q: We know that there is a competition among the European nations to sell sophisticated jets to Bangladesh Air Force. Will the issue come up in the discussions?

A: Yes, we will be talking about equipment issues. But I don't want to get into the precise details.

Q: So you are interested in selling sophisticated military equipment to Bangladesh Armed Forces?

It is for Bangladesh to decide what it needs. If Bangladesh decides this is the capability it needs, it is worth saying that I think the tragedy of the last week reminded everybody that defence forces are very important to preserving sovereignty and we would certainly argue that Eurofighter will be a very good investment for preserving sovereignty. And the same thing would apply to Offshore Trovas ships.

As Bangladesh has demarcated its economic area in the Bay of Bengal and the ability to protect those maritime resources and develop the blue economy is very important. These ships could be extremely useful in delivering effective economic solutions and to enable Bangladesh to protect and exploit economic resources in the Bay of Bengal. The point is we are not thrusting these things at Bangladesh. If Bangladesh Armed Forces decide that they need particular capabilities, we are happy to make those capabilities available for Bangladesh.

We can work together to enhance military capacity: Dickson

Bangladesh and the UK are holding their first ever defence dialogue from Wednesday in Dhaka

en.prothomalo.com

 

[Isa Khan]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1499353651651002369

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1499368995023368195

 

[Isa Khan]

A two-day long defence dialogue between Bangladesh and the United Kingdom concluded today (Thursday) at the Armed Forces Division (AFD) at Dhaka Cantonment.

The dialogue, first of its kind between the two countries, is expected to create opportunities for broader discussions on bilateral defence and military issues, according to an ISPR press statement.

A 24-member Bangladesh delegation led by Brigadier General Husain Muhammad Masihur Rahman, director-general of Operations and Plan, AFD, and a five-member delegation led by Trish Wilson, head of International Security, UK participated in the dialogue.

Bangladesh Defence Attaché in the UK Brig Gen Mohammad Mahbubur Rashid and UK High commissioner in Dhaka Robert Chatterson Dickson also attended the event.

Defence and security cooperation between Bangladesh and the UK has been warm and intense, said the press statement, adding that the UK's continual support to provide assistance in defence development and training the Bangladesh Armed Forces is well marked.

It said a good number of Bangladesh Armed Forces personnel are trained in the UK every year at different institutions. The two armed forces have also been working closely in UN peacekeeping missions and in the global war on terror. The exchange of high-profile military visits has also been a hallmark of defence cooperation between the two countries.

First Bangladesh–UK defence dialogue concludes

A two-day long defence dialogue between Bangladesh and the United Kingdom concluded yesterday (Thursday) at the Armed Forces Division (AFD) at Dhaka Cantonment. The dialogue, first of its kind between the two countries, is expected to create opportunities for broader discussions on bilateral...

www.tbsnews.net