Concluding Part
What this means is that Bangladesh cannot afford to isolate Myanmar amid the bilateral talks of the Rohingya crisis. There needs to be a deeper level of cooperation developing between the two. If not, projects such as the Asian Highway, BIMSTECT connectivity projects, and future trade corridors may potentially grind to a halt from a lack of meaningful coordination and understanding. The Rohingya crisis should not be used to potentially cripple cooperation in these other areas. Isolating agendas is key here to achieve a mutually beneficial coordination of regional developments and shared interests.
Isolating Agendas with Patience: Some have observed that Bangladesh has been "strategically patient" in its regional dealings concerning the Rohingya population. This is because of three aspects that the country has to carefully consider. It has to first maintain it position as state that adheres to basic humanitarian principles, that it has to be open to a future possible repatriation initiative through a mutual understanding with Myanmar, and that it has to routinely protects its shared border with Myanmar. Bangladesh has so far shown that it understands how its regional reality works and how to maintain a degree of balance when developments do not work in its favour. Bangladesh cannot consider coercing Myanmar on this issue, especially not with how China is engaged with it in defence and infrastructure. Bangladesh has instead chosen a different approach of making the Rohingya crisis and international issue so that the UN, the OIC and ASEAN partners and the wider international community takes notice of this issue and extend their support. This approach has seemed to work thus far, but many are still uncertain as to how long that will be the case for Bangladesh. Repatriation is still stagnant and the shared border continues to be a headache for the country.
What Can Bangladesh Do Here?
Bangladesh can, surprisingly, consider several viable approaches to deepening relations with Myanmar and then navigate the regional geopolitical landscape:
* First by starting off with shared concerns. Both countries have some serious shared issues that they need to deal with as soon as possible: reduced trade from pre-2017 era, drug trafficking, arms smuggling, human trafficking, insurgent movements, and climactic events and disasters.
" The opening of formal trade channels can address the reduced trade.
* The opening of joint counterterrorism measures can address the border issues.
* The expression of shared environmental concerns as climate affected countries in global climate forums (The IPCC, the COPs, and the GCF to name a few) can help mobilize initiatives that help these two countries in their shared climate concerns. Bangladesh can definitely help with spearheading the latter, since it is one of the global leaders in climate resilience and adaptation and disaster preparedness.
* This does not mean that Bangladesh should ignore the regional platforms, namely, BIMSTEC and ASEAN. But since these platforms have been used to bring forward contentious issues of bilateral and multilateral dispute with Myanmar (humanitarian concerns, border issues, regime control issues to name a few), Bangladesh should instead focus on promoting multilateral diplomacy to promote a shared culture of peace and accountability. The issues that have been raising dispute can come much later in the discussion after relations have deepened considerably enough between the two countries.
This brings us to the discussion on how to continue the Rohingya issue. That should be, first and foremost, kept separate from all the previous modes of approach discussed so far. If it is kept as strictly a humanitarian issue, with engaging humanitarian agencies, as part of shared global humanitarian affairs, then it will not clash with the other areas. These other areas of shared issues can then be kept separate and be used to deepen bilateral ties with Myanmar. Not to omit a key part of a country's population, the civil society, the business community, and the academia of Bangladesh can be involved in track 1 and 1.5 dialogues with Myanmar to open up communications with Myanmar's wider diaspora, so that connections between the two countries continue to deepen even if situations worsen in Myanmar. If all of this is taken into account, the Naf river will indeed become an actual symbol of shared peace.
The writer is an Army Officer
