Bangladesh–China maritime security cooperation

Abstract

To what extent can the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) maximise the opportunity of maritime security cooperation between China and Bangladesh? The study answers this question by contextualising Bangladesh's maritime security cooperation with China in the Bay of Bengal. As a coastal country in South Asia, Bangladesh is facing a number of traditional and non-traditional maritime security challenges, including the politics among regional and extra-regional powers in the Bay of Bengal, terrorism, piracy and so on. However, owing to its increasing volume of international trade through these maritime routes, China has also been facing a similar kind of security threats for the last several years. In order to counter these common challenges, therefore, Bangladesh and China have extended their cooperation in bilateral maritime security affairs. Given this context, this chapter argues that the Maritime Silk Road under the BRI has widened the scope of this bilateral maritime security cooperation in a win-win manner, whereas Bangladesh has the opportunity to upgrade its naval capabilities and seaports by China's technical and financial assistance, and China can connect its landlocked southern provinces to the Bay of Bengal by using Bangladesh's maritime and land routes.