Foreign Policy and Diplomacy, Shaping Bangladesh’s Role on the Global Stage
“The world has changed, and this change has been dramatic and rapid. Bangladesh is strategically located and has the opportunity to be the connection point between south and southeast Asia.”
Mr. Jashim Uddin, Foreign Secretary, Government of Bangladesh
In a speech that combined personal reflection with strategic analysis, Mr. Jashim Uddin, Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh, addressed the shifting contours of global diplomacy and Bangladesh’s evolving role within it at the Empowering Bangladesh Conference. His address, “Foreign Policy & Diplomacy: Shaping Bangladesh’s Role on the Global Stage,” called for a bold reimagining of Bangladesh’s foreign policy—one grounded in pragmatism, regional cooperation, and people-centric priorities.
Mr. Uddin emphasized the need for Bangladesh to move beyond dependence on any single global power and instead embrace a diversified, multilateral approach that capitalizes on its strategic geographic location as a bridge between South and Southeast Asia. He called for investment in education, defense, and infrastructure to strengthen Bangladesh’s long-term global standing.
The speech also served as a personal tribute to Ambassador M. Serajul Islam, whose vision and intellect continue to shape contemporary foreign policy thinking. Mr. Uddin reflected on his time working with Ambassador Islam, describing him as “a legend in the foreign service” with “a sharp analytical mind and the guts to stand up for the honour and interests of his country.”
“Ambassador Serajul Islam would have found this time interesting—and perhaps he could have asked the right question for the right answer,” Mr. Uddin said.
“His writings laid out a strategic vision for Bangladesh’s democratic transformation, economic self-reliance, and geopolitical relevance. I’m honored to pay tribute to one of the greats in our foreign service.”
Transcript:
First of all, I’d like to thank Ms Sabrina Islam and Naureen Islam for coming up with the idea of honouring their father, Ambassador Serajul Islam, a legend in foreign service with whom I had the opportunity to work for about two years.
I always thought if he was picked up as our Foreign Secretary he would have been an excellent foreign secretary with his sharp analytical mind and guts to stand up for the honour and interests of his country.
So I’m truly delighted to be part of this event to pay my respect to this great man. As I saw, upon retirement he has dedicated his time to writing deeply analytical pieces on both our domestic politics, foreign policy and international relations. The intro to the online compilation of his writings aptly summed it up in the following words and I quote: “Ambassador Serajul Islam’s in-depth writings outline essential steps to transform Bangladesh from authoritarian governance toward a resilient democracy.” And it goes on to say, “His analyses offer not only a critique of existing governance but also a strategic vision for strengthening the nation’s geopolitical stance, economic foundations, and political freedom.”
The topic I’ve been asked to talk about is foreign policy and diplomacy, shaping Bangladesh’s role on the global stage.
As you can see the Global stage is now in a flux and last year Bangladesh has also witnessed a historic upheaval. So we are adjusting to changes both in the domestic and external fronts. The world has changed and this change has been dramatic and rapid. From Cold War to post Cold War unipolar moment to multipolar world. From globalisation to inward looking approach. From rise of democracy and wave of democracy to populism. From Europe centric world to Euro-US centric world to Asia centricworld. From dollar dominance to rise of non dollar currencies. We have witnessed rise of the non state actors. Even individuals with money or ideas or both have the capacity to influence and shape global conversations.
In today’s world China is a major power, so is the US. Europe is adjusting to the changes in the security landscape which may have far reaching consequences for the continent and their relations with countries outside Europe. India, a large country with a big economy and aspiration to have a place on global stage, located in our neighbourhood, is trying to find its voice and make it heard in global conversations. ASEAN remains a solid group despite the developments in Myanmar which is a member of the group. Japan is yet another important country, rising from the ashes of the Second World War found a place of respect in global politics. Russia after the Cold War, facing challenges in the security realm vis-a-vis NATO, has been bogged down in war in Ukraine which has taken a turn with policy change in Washington. It has its own national ambition as a large country with a glorious history and culture, and continues to be relevant on the global stage. West Asia or the Middle East is witnessing rapid modernisation and transformation in their economies and also continues to be a trouble spot with renewed Israeli aggression against the unarmed civilians in Gaza right before the eyes of the international community. In other continents Brazil and South Africa are also active participants in the global agenda setting conversations. The UN, despite its promise at its birth and again after the end of the Cold War, at times remains paralysed.
Friendships are also witnessing changes. The Cold War time alliances, for example, are going through transformations. NATO is not what it used to be. There seems to be a chasm within the group with members taking different approaches on issues ranging from security to climate change to health. Shifts in US policy in terms of policy towards its European allies, to global institutions and global issues have sort of triggered realignment of relationships in the West. On the other hand, new groupings such as RCEP and BRICS have very strong presence with many countries eager to become part of these groups.
As for Bangladesh, we live in a neighbourhood which is large in size, population and economy that stands on glorious civilisations. Being in the neighbourhood with two large economies offers us opportunities to grow our economy and transform us as a connector within the South Asia region and as a bridgebetween south and south east Asia. Enhanced trade and tourism has the potential to make Bangladesh a hub for transport on the road, rail, river, sea and air.
Neighbours are someone who are geographically next to you and it is expected that with neighbours you’ll have more interactions. Being next to each other provides you the opportunity to interact more for a host of reasons and being neighbours you’re supposed to know each other better. So we have two components while we define neighbours. One is geographical proximity and two, interactions between or among them. Let us look at how we are doing on both fronts.
On the proximity side, we are yet to develop tranquil borders. We are still talking about border killings and unresolved issues of sharing of trans border rivers. We are still talking about forcibly displaced people who have entered our territory and who are waiting to go back home.
In South Asia, our respective media has limited to nil interest about each other and attitudes towards each other ranges from disinterest to indifference to outright hostility. Intra South Asia trade constitutes 5% of their total trade while the number is 25% and 60% in case of Southeast Asia and Europe respectively.
It may sound strange. But for all practical purposes we are neighbours to the US because US is our largest export destination; the west Asia is our neighbour because they host the largest concentration of our expatriate workers and withthem we share a sense of affinity. But this should not be the case.
We have big advantage if we have meaningful engagements with our neighbours. We can tap resources, we can trade, we can have people to people level interactions. But we need the right mindset. HCA has spoken about connectivity and regional cooperation. The geography puts certain limitations and restrictions on some of the countries in the region. But that limitations can be overcome by tapping the complementaries. We can also fulfill many of our requirements through enhanced collaboration within the region.
The interim government has come out of a revolution. In this chaotic world, this government has an opportunity to do the right things which they are doing. Therefore, the interim government while trying to fix the problems and issues coming out of the immediate need such as a poor economy, or bringing back the assets that have gone out, very quickly embarked on a proactive foreign policy outlining a forward looking policy deeply rooted in the idea of Bangladesh’s welfare. People centrism is one key feature which of course stands out in contrast to the flawed approach of the yesteryears. As a result, despite the transient nature of the government, the government under the leadership of the Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus has been giving shape to a foreign policy which is not about fire fighting but is about thinking of our foreign policy in the long haul and therefore the legacy this government is going to leave behind, will have far reaching impact on the foreign policy thinking of Bangladesh.
This new foreign policy is the result not only of the circumstances but also because of the key decision maker namely Professor Muhammad Yunus who has been thinking about issues that have implications for foreign policy. For instance, his focus had been on the marginalised, the voiceless, when he started the Grameen Bank. Additionally, his stature as a pioneer in micro finance, founder of Grameen Bank, the idea of social business, his global renown as a Nobel laureate and his world wide network have been useful in the past months.
This credentials helped to establish very quickly the acceptance of the new government. From day one, the government enjoyed support of the international community in particular the major global players. The other factor is his ideas with people in general and people at the margin in particular at the core of his thoughts and ideas. His thoughts and ideas expanded to the wider concern for the world and hence the ideas of 3 zeros covering poverty, unemployment and carbon emission have been well received. His association with the UN also played a key role in his foreign policy thinking giving the UN and UN organs great prominence. Youth and technology also have been part of his views as drivers of change and this particular aspect has featured in his views.
Ideas and network aside, he is a pragmatic person. Focus on the marginalised and the global network and the connection between these two have been a major feature of his foreign policy. When he talks about bringing back the assets that were taken out of the country, it means justice at one level and at another level it’s standing for the poor. There are distinct features of the current government’s foreign policy. It’s value based meaning we talk about mutual respect in any relationship, we talk about sovereignty, territorial integrity, non interference in other country’s internal affairs.
It’s independent, pragmatic which means it’s for mutual benefits, it’s economy focused to draw investment, it’s people centric, it gives high importance to diaspora, it believes in multilateralism, stresses on the importance on connectivity and regional and sub regional cooperation, turning challenges into opportunities, and trying to make bilateral, regional relationships sustainable. While pursuing our policy we are facing a number of challenges: for example, misinformation and disinformation campaigns, lack of economic and other opportunities, fixing relations that suffered a setback due to the change in government, reshaping relations that were long neglected, challenges from climate change and graduation from LDC status to a developing country status and the challenge of hosting 1.2 million forcibly displaced Myanmar Nationals.
Looking forward: in international relations what lies ahead is difficult to foresee. Even an intelligent guess might turn out to be big follies. So many factors are now at play that it makes it difficult to predict the future including the future of the interstate relations. We know that we will live in an interdependent world and we will continue to need a foreign policy. Whatever be the structure of the future global order we will need collaboration to sustain it. It is applicable to our region, to our continent and to our globe. The world has too many problems to be solved, this can’t be done by one individual country but by countries as a collective.
In some cases though the only help we need is self help which doesn’t mean walking alone all the time and doing it all by yourself. But doing it all by yourself is a big part of it. From our experience in the course of last seven months I think one big take away is uncertainty and to some extent surprise in our external relations. The negative campaign against Bangladesh is something that we didn’t experience at this scale before. The second one is the imposition of tariff by the US.
While we are dealing with these surprises and uncertainties it’s important to have a look at the way we prepare ourselves. Let’s consider geopolitics for a second. Geopolitics is a reality. In the geopolitical game, we can do the balancing act which is a delicate business and when we do the balancing act, the onus is onus. But the balancing act may not always be a manageable one. The other option is to take advantage of our strategic location and make the major countries dependent on us, the way Qatar did it by transforming it into a diplomatic hub and by using its soft power. I’m not suggesting we should follow Qatar model. I’m just pointing to an option and I think we should give this option a serious consideration. For that we need to do a lot of work. Our preparations must equip ourselves to deal with this new realities. It will serve our interests if we follow some dos and don’ts. Don’t depend, for example, on single country for purchase of products and services. Diversify export products and export destinations. Make foreign investment sustainable. Grow domestic capacity for products for exports and for our own consumption. Grow capacity in service sector including medical services. Focus on up-skilling of our Human Resources. Pay attention to self employment. Expand opportunities for the tech savvy young generation both at home and abroad. Focus and invest in soft power, invest in branding. Invest in education, infrastructure and invest in defence.
This is an unusual time when challenges are many and manifold. How to deal with it - is an easy question to ask but difficult to answer. Ambassador M Serajul Islam would have found this time interesting and perhaps he could have asked the right question for the right answer. I mourn his passing away. May Allah grant him Jannah.
Thank you once again for inviting me and for this opportunity to pay my humble tribute to one of the greats in our foreign service.
