Welcoming China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), international affairs adviser to the Prime Minister Gowher Rizvi said the objectives of the agenda 'fit' into the national priorities of Bangladesh.
"Bangladesh is proud to be a part of it (BRI)," he said.
His comments came ahead of the 2nd BRI Summit, scheduled for opening on April 25 in the Chinese capital of Beijing.
Mr Rizvi was speaking as the chief guest at the launch of Chinese quarterly magazine named the Belt and Road by local think-tank Centre for East Asia Foundation (CEAF).
The programme was held Saturday at the University of Dhaka, where charge de affaires of the Chinese embassy Chen Wei was present as the distinguished guest.
More than 150 countries, including Bangladesh and 90 organisations from various parts of the world have so far confirmed their involvement with the initiative.
But many countries, including the United States of America (USA) and India, were critical of such massive infrastructural projects after terming it a "debt trap" for participating nations.
In his speech, Mr Rizvi said that Bangladesh had been in favour of the initiative even before its creation with the formation of BCIM (Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar) economic corridor, which is a reduced version of the BRI.
There are different global initiatives like BRI and Asia-Pacific Strategy and the country has extremely been successful in managing its foreign relations, he said.
"It (Bangladesh) has always been avoided taking sides. We'll continue to maintain that," he said.
Mentioning the foreign policy dictum "friendship towards all, malice towards none," the Prime Minister's aide said this has been successful because of its ability to maintain good relations with China, India, Japan, Soviet Union, the United States and western European countries.
"This has helped Bangladesh become what it is today. Bangladesh has now become a model of development and innovation," Mr Rizvi added.
Bangladesh became a signatory to the BRI during the Dhaka visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping in October, 2016.
Like inaugural BRI summit held in 2017, Dhaka is set to send a high-profile delegation to attend the three-day forum for international cooperation.
Professor of international relations at Dhaka University Delwar Hossain said the BRI has many commonalities with Bangladesh's own development strategies.
The government focuses on different stages of connectivity like regional, intra-regional and trans-regional connectivity and the idea of BRI also promotes multi-level connectivity.
"If we look at our foreign policy over the last 10 years, it is focusing more on look east. On that point of view, we need to count China," he added.
Former ambassador to China Muhammad Azizul Haque said the BRI is not just surface or physical connectivity, it involves air, internet and non-physical connectivity in diversified sectors.
With regional connectivity and transportation network under the BRI, Bangladesh could get major socio-economic boost, which will help the nation achieve its long-term development goals, he added.
Executive Director of CEAF Nasim Mahmmud spoke at the programme, moderated by former ambassador Selina Mohsin.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
