A few months before Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country after a coup which eventually replaced her government with an interim one, she claimed that she was offered a hassle-free re-election in the January 7 polls if she allowed a foreign country to build an air base inside the country.

"If I allowed a certain country to build an air base in Bangladesh, then I would have had no problem," Daily Star Bangladesh had quoted Hasina as saying. She, however, did not name the country that had made the offer to her but emphasised that the "offer came from a white man".

When asked about her response to the offer, the PM said she gave the same reply as she did in 2001 when the US offered to sell the country's gas to India. "I've clearly said that I'm the daughter of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. . . we won our Liberation War, I don't want to come to power by renting part of the country or handing it over to some other country and I don't need power," she said.

At that time, many thought Hasina was talking of the United States. The sudden coup led any to believe that the US orchestrated toppling of Hasina's elected government and replacing it with one by people of its liking. Hasina has had troubled relations with it for quite some time now. The US, the biggest buyer of Bangladesh’s exports, had become more vocal in its calls for a free and fair election, imposing visa curbs on several members of Hasina’s ruling party and military officials in September.

After fleeing to India, Hasina again claimed the US played a role in her ouster. "I could have stayed in power if I had surrendered the sovereignty of Saint Martin Island and allowed America to dominate the Bay of Bengal," she said.

The US, however, has rejected the allegations of its involvement in the Bangladesh crisis, including the protests in the country that led to the deaths of hundreds of people. Refuting all the reports and rumours, the White House Press Secretary, Karine Jean Pierre, said in a media briefing a week after the coup, "So, we have had no involvement at all. Any, reports or rumours that the United States government was involved in these, in these events is simply, simply false. That is not true."

"This is a choice for and by the Bangladeshi people. We believe that the Bangladeshi people should determine the future of the Bangladeshi government, and that's where we stand. Any allegations, certainly we will continue to say, and what I have said here is simply untrue," Jean Pierre said.

Why The US Needs Bangladesh

The US may have had no role to play in the coup against Hasina and forming an interim government, but Bangladesh holds critical strategic value for the US and a government more cooperative than Hasina's can better serve American strategic interests in the region.

In June last year, Hasina alleged that the US had intended to acquire St Martin's Island to build a military base in exchange for opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party's electoral victory. She claimed that the BNP, if brought to power, would sell the island to the US, a step she vowed never to allow while in office.

Though the US rejected her claim, a military foothold for the US in Bangladesh can put it into a strong position against China. An article published by the US Naval Institute, a non-profit, independent forum, has detailed the military importance of Bangladesh to the US, arguing that the country could be a key logistics node for the US Navy or help blockading operations supporting broader US Navy goals in the Indo-Pacific region.

"Cooperating with the Bangladesh Navy, the U.S. Navy could use those bases to observe Chinese projects. Moreover, Bangladesh’s strategic vantage at the top of the Bay of Bengal funnel could provide the United States with an advantage in guarding the Malacca Strait, which is vital to the Chinese economy and industry," the article by Bangladeshi scholars says.

The article says that while Bangladesh's own position on Indo-Pacific security "aligns with the rules-based order that the US Navy seeks to enforce, the lack of clear alignment and the absence of concurrent maritime strategy and doctrinal documents reveal a slow-moving and risk-averse strategy".

"It is the lack of access to Western platforms and financing that has driven Bangladesh to source the submarines from China. If proper financing, technology, and platform support were offered, Bangladesh could be a potential candidate for modern Western diesel-powered conventional attack submarines," the article says.

The article says since the US has no bases in the Bay of Bengal, during any potential conflict, Bangladesh’s naval bases could be a hub for logistics and a safe harbor for the US Navy.

"Bangladesh currently is building a deep seaport in Matarbari, Cox’s Bazar with the assistance of Japan, one of the most trusted and important U.S. allies since World War II. Japan could help build a bridge between these two countries to ensure that the USN could use Matarbari deep-sea port as a naval operations base during any future war by blockading potential Chinese shipments that bypasses the Malacca to use CMEC (China-Myanmar Economic Corridor) as an alternative. This would provide the United States leverage against China in the Bay of Bengal region," the article says.

The article also says Bangladesh can provide the US long-range ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) advantages over China.

This report is auto-generated from a syndicated feed