Sino-Bangladesh Defence Cooperation

Indo-Chinese battle lines of 1962 are still volatile and due to the Indian dependance on the narrow (18-20 miles) Shiliguri Chicken Neck (close to Bangladesh's North) in order to maintain military deployments in Chinese frontier puts Indian defence planners in a grave situation in case of potential escalletions. Without the unhindered use of Northern Bangladeshi soil in a potential Sino-Indian standoff Indian forces in North Eastern India will become trapped by Chinese moves at or close to strategic Chumbi Valley (near Bhutan).

This very special position of Bangladesh was never lost to Chinese Leadership. Neither Bangladesh can allow her soil to be used to distabilize China, considering her own national interest. Apart from this to protect both Chinese and Bangladeshi shipping in the bay of Bengal and at malakka Straight Sino-Bangla naval cooperation is a must. Western interests in seeing pro-west regime in Yangoon (close to Chinese sensitivities) is evident for quite some tiomes now. Therefore a stronger partnership between China and BD as well as China-Myanmar is vital for long term stability in South Asia. Militarily this is the precept in which Sino-Bangla strategic partnership has got a mutual value for each other.

China is also economically very important to us. She is our largest source of imports. Bangladesh is always trying to come out of her geo-political and geo-economic isolation arising from her virtual India locked setup. A direct all weather road link via Myanmar connecting Kunming is the only possible way for us to end this "India locked" situation.

Bangladesh also values her relationship with india, but due to many out standing disputes this relationship remains mostly sour now and likely to remain so for long time to come. Therefore bangladesh needs a strong Sino connection in order to balance her India policy and encourage the later to review her disputed policies towards Bangladesh.

Many observers suggest that the gowth of Sino-Bangladesh strategic and military relation should be viewed in the above mentioned context.

its more like she was force to do so. man I sorry for her.

i found this a while back and it's posted on my blog, this is part of China's sales of C-802/FM-90N to Bangladesh. It seems a lot of these South Asia countries are adopting C-802 and maybe FM-90N in the future. I see possible future ship sales to Bangladesh.

Text of report headlined "Navy to test-fire new missile next week"
published by Bangladeshi newspaper Prothom Alo on 28 April

Bangladesh Navy is to test-fire the C-802 missile imported from China
next week. The missile will be launched from the naval frigate "BNS
Osman" on 4 May to a target 140 nautical miles in the sea. For this
the navy has taken all cautionary measures and instructed all to
follow its instructions. A meeting with all other relevant government
agencies and departments was held on Thursday [24 April].

According to sources, this is the first such test-fire of missiles in
Bangladesh. Instructions have been given to relevant authorities to
keep away ships coming from Singapore, Colombo (Sri Lanka) and
Malaysia from the route where the test-fire will take place. And it
has asked for anchoring arrangements of those ships in the outer
anchorage area.

According to naval sources, among the six frigates of Bangladesh Navy,
BNS Osman and BNS Khalid Bin Walid (formerly known as BNS Bangabandhu)
have facilities to launch missiles. Till now BNS Osman, collected from
China in 1989, was equipped with SY-1 Alpha type missile. This missile
of 1988 model can hit targets at a distance of 35 nautical miles.

C-802 and FM-90 types of missiles have been imported from China by
Bangladesh Navy as part of its modernization. These missiles can hit
targets at a distance of 120 nautical miles. Missile launching
technology of BNS Osman has been upgraded. FM-90 missiles have been
imported for BNS Khalid Bin Walid.

tphuang said:

i found this a while back and it's posted on my blog, this is part of China's sales of C-802/FM-90N to Bangladesh. It seems a lot of these South Asia countries are adopting C-802 and maybe FM-90N in the future. I see possible future ship sales to Bangladesh.

Click to expand...

On that note, I have to ask...

Is there a lighter new-generation FFG or corvette under development in China? For example the Turks have recently unveiled their TF-100 concept which has a displacement range of 2500-3500 tons depending on customer requirement. However the baseline TF-100 is expected to have VLS in addition to the capabilities found on MILGEM.

Diving Falcon said:

On that note, I have to ask...

Is there a lighter new-generation FFG or corvette under development in China? For example the Turks have recently unveiled their TF-100 concept which has a displacement range of 2500-3500 tons depending on customer requirement. However the baseline TF-100 is expected to have VLS in addition to the capabilities found on MILGEM.

Click to expand...

I don't think so, they are looking for a corvette probably in the SAAR V class to fill the gap between 022s and 054 series, but there are plenty of 053s around at the current time. Anything in 2500 - 3500 ton range will be for export only.

tphuang said:

I don't think so, they are looking for a corvette probably in the SAAR V class to fill the gap between 022s and 054 series, but there are plenty of 053s around at the current time. Anything in 2500 - 3500 ton range will be for export only.

Click to expand...

Yeah even the TF-100 seems to be primarily export-oriented. Also, are there any Chinese developments similar to the Standard/SM-series?

Diving Falcon said:

Yeah even the TF-100 seems to be primarily export-oriented. Also, are there any Chinese developments similar to the Standard/SM-series?

Click to expand...

well, HH-9 is the Chinese equivalence of SM-2 I guess, although it's a little bigger than SM-2.

Chief of PAF Visits Dhaka- Sale of JF 17 High on Agenda

The Chief of Air Staff of Pakistan Air Force Air Chief Marshal Tanvir Mahmood is visiting Bangladesh in a move that is likely to strengthen military to military ties further.

Pakistan has been marketing the jointly developed Sino-Pak JF-17 multirole combat aircraft to Bangladesh since long. His visit is seen as directly connected to the sale of the combat aircraft by military analysts in Dhaka.

His visit comes hot on the heels of the Chinese Foreign Minister who also came to Dhaka in an effort to strengthen military ties as well as provide China's support for Bangladesh's peaceful use of nuclear energy for power generation.