The US’s Seventh Fleet rushed in late 1971 to prevent Bangladesh
from becoming an independent nation. Now it’s rushing again to use
Bangladesh’s territorial water to encircle China, and India, as the
latter too aspires to be a global power.
That is what has prompted the Times Now of India to make a
calculated exposure of a secret dialogue between the governments of
Bangladesh and the US with respect to deploying US’s military might in
Bangladesh’s territorial waters.
The looming China-US Cold War in the Bay of Bengal may suck in Bangladesh into a major global conflagration.
Although
the uproar created by the Seventh-Fleet-related news prompted an
instant denial of the report’s bona fide by administrations in both
Dhaka and Washington, a component of the Seventh Fleet is already slated
to station in the vicinity of Bangladesh’s territorial waters by early
2013, according to information obtained by the Holiday.
The Holiday has further learnt that discussions took place in this
regard between the officials of Bangladesh and the USA, although the
subject was not an agenda item during Hillary Clinton’s recent Dhaka
visit.
According to one reliable source, the discussion came up during a
high level security meeting between the two countries on April 19,
attended from the US side by the US’s Assistant Secretary for Political
and Military Affairs, Andrew J Shapiro. Besides, a careful review of the
US’s new Asian strategy does confirm the authenticity of the report.
Bangladesh’s strategic indispensability lies in the fact that a
strong US military presence in the Bay of Bengal can ensure swift US
military interventions in the South China Sea littoral as well as in the
Persian Gulf. That is why enhanced military cooperation with Bangladesh
has become a priority for defence policy planners in Washington.
Then there’re other reasons. First: to ensure strong military
presence in the Asia-Pacific region following withdrawal from
Afghanistan and Iraq. Second: to checkmate both China and India as the
duo move forward to claiming global supremacy. Third: to ensure safety
of trade route for US’s major regional allies like Japan, Korea,
Singapore and Taiwan. “Bangladesh and Singapore are the two countries
where strong US’s military presence is expected in coming years,” said
the source.
Already the US has concluded a Strategic Partnership dialogue with
Singapore in May, and, by the spring of 2013, battleship USS Freedom
(LCS-1) will be deployed for an initial 10 month period in Singapore
waters, it was learnt.
Coinciding with the Times Now’s report, defence ministers of the US
and Singapore declared on June 2 that Singapore has agreed ‘in
principle’ to the US request ‘to deploy up to four littoral combat ships
in Singapore waters on a rotational basis.’
A potent indication that the US is pushing for a similar strategic
partnership agreement with Bangladesh is evident from the serious
emphasis given to enhanced security cooperation between the two nations
during Hillary Clinton’s Dhaka visit, and, the signing on May 5 of a
high profiled agreement for continuous dialogue in which mutual security
cooperation ranked prominently.
Prior to Hillary’s Dhaka visit, a US Congressional report
highlighted Bangladesh as a ‘partner of choice’ while a leading US
intelligence agency published another report that has catapulted the
status of Singapore as one of the US’ s prime regional strategic
alliances and recipients of military assistance.’
From hindsight, it also seems that the strategic positioning of US
forces in the region in the wake of withdrawal of US forces from
Afghanistan aims at not repeating the mistakes of the past. The US’s
chaotic exit from Saigon in April 1975 led to its disgrace and momentary
isolation while the absence of a sustainable strategy allowed the
taking over of Afghanistan by radical Islamists following the Soviet
withdrawal in the late 1980s.
Besides, the new US strategy entails measures for ensuring free and
open commerce, unfettered access to Asian and global sea , airs and
cyberspace, and, peaceful resolution of conflicts by establishing
effective military deterrent.
As both India and China vie for global supremacy, the US also seeks
to strengthen its strategic ties with Australia, Japan, South Korea,
Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Bangladesh,
Sri Lanka, Myanmar, New Zealand, Vietnam, and Mongolia.
To some extent, the strategy is a copy cat version of China’s
‘String of Pearl’ policy that seeks port facilities in Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
Geopolitically, a strong US military presence in the Bay of Bengal
can facilitate quick military intervention in the Mid-East where US’s
military presence has been reduced drastically since the withdrawal of
forces from Iraq.
Above all, the new strategy ensures inter-operability of the
Central and the Pacific commands in the way the Seventh Fleet played its
role after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. The commander of
the Seventh Fleet then assumed additional responsibilities as the
Commander of the Central Command, and moved over 50 ships to beef up
capability in the Persian Gulf.
The most important aspect of this new strategy is to checkmate
Chinese influence in the region. In 1996, the US dispatched two aircraft
carrier battle groups to the Taiwan Straits under the Seventh Fleet’s
command to demonstrate U.S. support for Taiwan during the Third Taiwan
Strait Crisis. One of them, the Nimitz battle group, made a hasty
transit from the Persian Gulf while Carrier Group Five, led by the
Independence, carried out sorties from the Japanese bases.
Reinforcement into the Asia-Pacific theatre from the Persian Gulf
being time consuming and cost-ineffective, the Bay of Bengal offers an
overarching, cheaper and speedy intervention capability in the South
China Sea littoral as well as the Persian Gulf region.
