{"id":120759,"date":"2021-11-30T18:33:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T01:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=120759"},"modified":"2021-11-30T18:33:00","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T01:33:00","slug":"turkey-and-bangladesh-can-benefit-from-growing-trade-and-strategic-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/11\/30\/turkey-and-bangladesh-can-benefit-from-growing-trade-and-strategic-ties\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey And Bangladesh Can Benefit From Growing Trade and Strategic Ties"},"content":{"rendered":"

MD Pathik Hasan<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Turkey is a real well-wisher and\ngood friend of Bangladesh. It is Turkey that was, is, and will be with\nBangladesh in the crisis moment. Only the sky is the limit of Turkey-Bangladesh\nties.  According to recent reports of Bangladeshi media outlets,\nBangladesh In recent times, Bangladesh and Turkey have become increasingly\nclose, with two main goals behind them. On the one hand, Turkey’s far-reaching\nefforts to regain its influence in the Muslim world. On the other hand,\nBangladesh is willing to expand trade and defense ties including resolving the\nRohingya crisis. Based on these two goals, analysts in Dhaka believe that the\nrelations between the two countries are going to reach a ‘unique height’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turkey, a member of the NATO\nalliance, has a strong position in international forums, including the United\nNations and the OIC, they say. Despite the distance from the country in the\npast, the relationship was strengthened by supporting Bangladesh on the\nRohingya issue. After that, Dhaka focused on increasing trade relations with\nAnkara, and the response was as expected. At present, bilateral trade between\nBangladesh and Turkey is 1 billion annually, but efforts are being made to\nincrease it to 2 billion. With the increase in defense cooperation, bilateral\nrelations are expected to deepen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now turkey wants to invest more in\nBangladesh. Bangladesh and Turkey agreed to boost up trade, tourism. Turkey has been able to attract the\nattention of the world as it has made tremendous progress in the last decade.\nOn the contrary, Bangladesh has emerged as a country of new potential for\neconomic growth. These two issues are playing a role in strengthening mutual\nunity and relations between the two countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bangladesh has condemned a coup\nattempt against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2016. According to a\nletter from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, relations between the two countries\nare warming up. From time to time, Erdogan’s administration has been expressing\nsupport for Dhaka on the Rohingya issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, Turkish First Lady Emin Erdogan\ncame to Bangladesh to visit the Rohingya camp in Cox’s Bazar. Turkey has taken\na strong stand in support of the Rohingya on the world stage, including the\nUN-OIC. The country has taken a number of steps, including providing\nhumanitarian assistance. As these are practically in favor of Bangladesh, Dhaka\nbenefits in other areas including diplomacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, the Chief of Air Staff\nand Navy will visit Turkey in late 2020. Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen went\nto Ankara, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevl\u00fct \u00c7avu\u015fo\u011flu came to Dhaka. They inaugurated\ntheir embassies in the two countries as well as signed bilateral agreements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chief of Army Staff General SM\nShafiuddin Ahmed recently visited Turkey. He spoke with top military officials,\nincluding the Turkish defense minister, about possible defense cooperation,\ntraining and other issues. Analysts believe that his visit will add a ‘new\ndimension’ to Bangladesh-Turkey strategic friendship and military cooperation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turkey is very interested<\/a> to build a sustainable strategic and defense<\/a> ties with Bangladesh. Bangladesh\nhas also agreed to buy military equipment<\/a> from Turkey to strengthen the\ncountry’s security system. In the coming days, the two governments will hold\ntalks with Turkey on joint production of military equipment in the country and\nextensive training in the security sector between the two countries. The defense cooperation between Dhaka and\nAnkara had been increasing for the last couple of years in view of Turkey\u2019s\nnear self-sufficiency in defense manufacturing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experts say the development of\ndefense ties between the two countries is positive, adding a new dimension to\nthe relationship. In the future, the relationship between the two countries may\nbecome even stronger. In FY2019-20 total trade with Turkey was $686.41<\/a>\nmillion out of which Bangladesh\u2019s export was $453 million against the import of\n$233.41 million reflecting a positive trade balance of $220.06 million in\nfavour of Bangladesh.  Infrastructure,\nconstruction materials, railway, renewable energy, automobile, healthcare, medical\nequipment, shipbuilding, agriculture, home appliances etc. are some of the\npotential areas for Turkish investment in Bangladesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turkey is working on increasing\nthe trade volume with Bangladesh to the tune of $3<\/a>\nbillion in the next few years, now that it has crossed the $1 billion-mark.\nTurkish Ambassador in Dhaka Mustafa Osman Turan said this while speaking with\ndiplomatic correspondents at the new Turkish embassy in the capital on November\n24, 2021. Trade potential between the two countries needs to be tapped to\nincrease the trade volume to $3 billion, said the Turkish envoy. Bangladesh was\nTurkey’s second-biggest trade partner in South Asia after India, with a total\ntrade volume of $1.2<\/a>\nbillion, Bangladesh was the fourth biggest buyer of Turkish defense products. In\nFY2020-21 Bangladesh\u2019s export to Turkey was $499.79 million, Turkey\u2019s Asia\nAnew\u201d initiative, Bangladesh can be a key focus of Turkey for trade and\ninvestment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Bangladesh Mission\nin Ankara, Turkey, a new agreement was signed between the two countries in the\ndefense sector on June 29. On 29 June 2021, the\nGovernment to Government (G2G) defense memorandum of understanding (MoU)<\/a> was signed between Bangladesh<\/a> and Turkey<\/a>. According to the agreement,\nBangladesh will buy a significant amount of military equipment from Turkey. The\nagreement was attended by Bangladesh Ambassador to Turkey Musad Mannan and\nDefense Attache Brigadier General Rashed Iqbal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to various media outlets,\nDiplomatic sources say Bangladesh wants to have multiple sources of military\nequipment in the context of ongoing geopolitical changes. As part of this, this\nagreement has been signed with Turkey. There are plans to sign the agreement\nwith several other countries in the coming days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After his productive visit to\nIndonesia, Foreign Minister Mevl\u00fct \u00c7avu\u015fo\u011flu visited Bangladesh on 23 December\n2020 upon the invitation of his Bangladeshi counterpart A.K. Abdul Momen and to\nofficially inaugurate our new Embassy compound in Dhaka. Turkish Foreign\nMinister Mevl\u00fct \u00c7avu\u015fo\u011flu arrived in Dhaka on December 23 for\na two-day visit. Before leaving Dhaka on December 23, Mevl\u00fct \u00c7avu\u015fo\u011flu met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at\nGanobhaban and conveyed a message from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.\nIn addition, the foreign minister said. He also held bilateral meetings with AK\nAbdul Momen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevl\u00fct \u00c7avu\u015fo\u011flu told reporters in Dhaka at the time\nthat Bangladesh was now the rising star of Asia. Bangladesh is one of the\nimportant partners of Turkey in Asia policy. The progress that Bangladesh has\nmade in the economic sector in a very short period of time is commendable. The\nbig businessmen of Turkey want to take the opportunity to invest in different\nsectors of Bangladesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the military sector, Turkey can\nproduce to fulfill its own needs, which is standard and sustainable. Turkey\nwants to cooperate with Bangladesh in this sector. Turkey is interested in\ntechnology exchange and joint production in this sector if necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bangladesh and Turkey both need to\nmake progress with each other in the defense sector. Many foreign partners in\nBangladesh will not be happy. But Bangladesh needs to move forward with Turkey\nto keep them happy. “Turkey is the only country Bangladesh can count on\nthat can come forward in times of crisis.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turkey has already called on\nBangladesh to jointly participate in the production and development of military\nequipment. Turkey is advancing a lot in drone technology. Drone weapons will\nplay a very important role in the coming war situation. The situation may be\nsuch that the drone will hover and it will be controlled sitting in the office.\nEven 21 years ago, they were building an armed personal carrier, that’s when\nthey built a small plane. There is no doubt that they will build fighter jets\nat some point. ‘<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turkey is a very good source. Turkey\nis the source of military equipment for Bangladesh as well as Bangladesh can\njointly participate in the production and development of military equipment\nwith Turkey. <\/strong>Thus, we can say that Turkey is boosting its trade and\ndefense ties with Bangladesh. Turkey and Bangladesh could benefit from growing\ntrade and defense ties. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MD Pathik Hasan Turkey is a real well-wisher and good friend of Bangladesh. It is Turkey that was, is, and will be with Bangladesh in the crisis moment. Only the sky is the limit of Turkey-Bangladesh ties.  According to recent reports of Bangladeshi media outlets, Bangladesh In recent times, Bangladesh and Turkey have become increasingly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-md-pathik-hasan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120759\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}