Dhaka, May 10 (newsin.asia): The Chinese Ambassador in Bangladesh, Li Jiming, told the media in a virtual meeting here on Monday, that Sino-Bangladesh relations will be “substantially damaged” if Bangladesh joins the “Quad” which is an “anti-China” alliance of the US, Japan, India and Australia.
Asked by Prothom Alo’s s Diplomatic Correspondent Raheed Ejaz to comment on the prospects of Bangladesh joining the Quad, Li said that the Quad is a “small group” which is portraying itself as an economic group. But this is not true. It is an anti-China group, the envoy said and added that he wants to make it very clear that there is a security element to the economic proposal. This has already been stated by the US and Japan.
The Ambassador then went on to warn that it will not be a good idea for Bangladesh to participate in this group. Bangladesh-China bilateral relations will be “substantially damaged” if Bangladesh joins this small group, he asserted.
In the last week of April, the Chinese Defense Minister General Wei Fenghi had visited Dhaka. At that time, China wanted Bangladesh’s cooperation on the issues of Quad and the Indo-Pacific. The envoy would not respond to the question about the response of the Bangladesh government to Wei’s request.
In reply to Ejaz’s question if China is planning any other mega project in Bangladesh under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Ambassador Li said that China undertakes projects in Bangladesh only at the request of host government. He advised the reporter to find out from the relevant Bangladesh ministries as to what projects they would want to be executed by China. China would then consider whether the project would be under the BRI or not.
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