Bangladesh and Russia: A New Start
January 15 Vladimir Putin hosted Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh. The sides talked about strengthening trade and economic cooperation between the two countries.
Today, Russia is very interested in in energy cooperation with Bangladesh, and among the priorities here is the construction of the first Ruppur nuclear power plant in Bangladesh. This is followed by the reconstruction of thermal power plants built with Soviet participation and the implementation of hydrocarbon exploration projects in the republic.
During the visit, Sheikh Hasiny to the Kremlin eleven documents were signed: an intergovernmental agreement on the settlement of Bangladesh’s financial obligations to the Russian Federation; agreement on granting Bangladesh a loan of 500 million dollars for the construction of Ruppur NPP; agreement on the construction of an atomic energy information center in the republic. Also, the parties signed a memorandum in the field of culture, providing for the Days of Culture in 2014-2015. Other signed memorandums concern cooperation in the areas of combating terrorism and extremism, justice, health and medical sciences and agriculture.
The Prime Minister of Bangladesh expressed confidence that the signed bilateral documents will contribute to the prosperity of the economy of her homeland.
The construction of nuclear power plants in Bangladesh will begin in January 2014. The total cost of the project will exceed 2 billion. Head of Rosatom Sergey Kiriyenko сообщил:
"January 1 2014 will begin the real work on the site, in the 2015, the main phase of the works will begin, which will take about the 5 years, so we are talking about the launch of the nuclear power plant at the beginning of the 2020-s."
He further noted that Bangladesh would also take a loan from Russia for the second stage of work. The amount will exceed 1,5 billion
Bangladesh made its “atomic” choice in favor of Russia, although negotiations were conducted with other major players in this market. Former Deputy Minister of Russia for Atomic Energy, Viktor Sidorenko, employee of the Kurchatov Institute says:
“This indicates that the attitude towards the Russian technology that has been formed in recent years gives rise to sufficient confidence in order to assess, along with technological advantages, the financial and credit opportunities offered by the Russian side. The advantage that can be attributed to competitive - is that we have a sufficient set of projects implemented in other countries. That is, you can see what is called, touch it, be it China, India or working stations in other countries. This is a demonstration that the technology exists and works reliably. ”
Thus, Bangladesh is becoming one of the most important partners of Russia in South Asia - along with India and China. Chief Researcher of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences Andrei Volodin on this topic expressed in the following way:
“Of course, the weight and role of Bangladesh are not comparable with the role of China, nor with the role of India. But for a long time, relations between Russia and Bangladesh, between the USSR and Bangladesh, were at the freezing point. We had a formal relationship, the embassies worked, we formally exchanged delegations, that's all. Now we are beginning to understand that the region of South Asia is becoming more and more important for us, more and more interesting. Of course, we need to develop trade, economic, scientific and technical ties with Bangladesh. ”
Russian President saidthat investments in the project of Gazprom and the Bangladesh corporation Petrobangla for drilling 10 gas wells will amount to 193 million dollars. In addition, Comrade Putin set the task of bringing trade with Bangladesh to 1 billion dollars:
"Last year, the turnover increased by about 20% and amounted to about 700 million dollars, but this is far from the limit, we set a quite achievable task - to bring the annual volume of mutual trade to 1 billion dollars."
Bangladesh’s interest in nuclear energy was explained to the world community by Francis Perrin, a French expert on cooperation in the field of nuclear energy and the president of Energy Strategy and Policy. According to himalthough Bangladesh is a natural gas producing country, the deposits there are small. There will be no more than 10 years. This is why Bangladesh needs atomic energy sources.
Aloof at the talks in Moscow was the question of the purchase of Russian weapons by Bangladesh.
After talks with Sheikh Hasina, President of Russia said reporters:
"Russia will provide Bangladesh with a loan of 1 billion dollars, which will be used to purchase Russian weapons and military equipment."
After the export credit is transferred to Bangladesh, this country will the fourth buyer of Russian weapons and military equipment in debt. The total amount of Russian export credits on weapon now is seven billion dollars. 2,2 a billion dollars from them received Venezuela, two billion - Vietnam, a billion - Indonesia and another 350 million - Jordan.
What will Bangladesh loan do?
It is quite possible that the Republic of Bangladesh will spend large amounts of money received from Russia on the purchase of Russian armored personnel carriers, airplanes and air defense systems. So считает TsAMTO director Igor Korotchenko. He talks about purchasing the BTR-80 (from 80 to 100 units), then short-range and medium-range anti-aircraft missile systems. on signing a contract for the repair and modernization of previously delivered Russian MiG-29 fighters, as well as on the purchase of new fighters in the MiG-29CMT variant. We can talk about the additional purchase of helicopters in the Mi-171Sh variant. It is likely that the loan in 1 billion will be used not simultaneously, but as contract agreements are reached.
In addition, Comrade Korotchenko noted that now over 50% of the armaments market Bangladesh is occupied by China, therefore, with new agreements, Russia is invading Beijing's zone of interests.
But in Defense News, where they refer to the subscribed Russian edition of Vedomosti, note that Russia and Bangladesh can negotiate the supply of armored personnel carriers, small arms, air defense systems and military transport helicopters Mi-17. Tanks The republic will not buy from Russia: Bangladesh has already acquired them in China.
In Bangladesh, they also abandoned their initial plans to acquire eight MiG-29 fighters - because of the price of 500 million dollars.
Military commentator of the Voice of Russia Ilya Kramnik believesthat Bangladesh, being a poor state, really will buy only cheap weapons in Russia:
“Most likely, we will talk about the supply of helicopters, and it will probably be multi-purpose helicopters. Perhaps it will be the supply of small arms and light armored vehicles, including military vehicles. This party can enter and air defense. But, again, these will be melee installations, perhaps even portable complexes or artillery installations. ”
A billion dollars for Bangladesh is a very large sum, commensurate with the annual military budget of this country.
In fact, this is the biggest arms purchase deal ever signed by Bangladesh since the country gained independence in 1971.
Observed and translated by Oleg Chuvakin
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- especially for topwar.ru
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