By Mohammad Pervez Bilgrami
Iran’s relations with Bangladesh do not get as much media attention as its relations with two other South Asian countries, India and Pakistan.
Iran’s relations with Bangladesh go as far back to when Muslims ruled in the region. Many Persians migrated to Bengal throughout history in search of employment as well as to propagate Islam. The Turco-Persian military ruler Bakhtiyar Khalji during his conquest of the Bengal region in 1203 briefly brought Bengal under Ghurid rule.
The Bengal Sultanate (1352-1576) was a stronghold for Persian and Turkic immigrants. With Farsi as an official language, Bengal witnessed a large influx of Persian scholars, lawyers, teachers and clerics throughout the Persianate Age.
The British colonial takeover of Bengal in 1757, however, brought that to an end. Iran’s relations with newly-independent Bangladesh were initially not amicable, at all, with the Shah’s Iran maintaining its closeness with Pakistan politically, diplomatically and militarily during the War of liberation in 1971. At that time, the US encouraged Iran to send military supplies to help embattled Pakistan.
Initially Iran’s strong ties with Pakistan remained a hindrance to establishing diplomatic relations with Bangladesh. It was only in 1974, three years after Bangladesh’s creation, on the eve of the second OIC Summit in Pakistan’s city of Lahore that Pakistan first recognised Bangladesh, followed by Iran and Turkey and later on by many other Muslim-majority countries. Since then Iran has maintained wider connections with Bangladesh.
With the fall of the Shah in 1979, new dimensions were added to the relationship between the newly-proclaimed Islamic Republic of Iran and Bangladesh. A few years later as a member of the Islamic peace committee formed during the 1981 OIC conference Bangladesh played an active role to end hostilities between Iran and Iraq.
Relations grew further with President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani becoming the first Iranian leader to visit independent Bangladesh in 1995. Subsequently, Bangladeshi Prime Ministers Sheikh Hasina in 1997 and 2012 and Khaleda Zia in2004 also visited Iran.
Since Rafsanjani’s visit to Dhaka, bilateral relations between the two countries have been steadily improving. The Iranian cultural centre in Dhaka has been playing an active role in increasing Persian cultural influence in Bangladesh. With a range of cultural and educational activities, Iran’s cultural presence in Dhaka has been quite robust till late. Screenings of Iranian-produced movies appear on state-run Bangladesh television, and large numbers of Iranian novels were translated into Bangla and are available in the bookstores.
There are well-known Tehran-based Bengali language radio channels catering to the needs of the Bangladeshi people, although the same cannot be said vice-versa.
Bangladesh also helped Iran in the early days of the Iranian revolution in 1979. Many Bangladeshi doctors served in the human resource starved Iran. Later on a group of Bangladeshi doctors and other professionals have also been trained in Iran. Iran assisted Bangladesh in 2007 with a relief package after the cyclone Sidr, one of the worst natural disasters to hit Bangladesh.
Iran and Bangladesh are members of many multilateral organizations such as the OIC, D-8 and Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Iran and Bangladesh signed a preferential trade accord in July 2006 which removed non-tariff barriers, with a view to eventually establishing a free trade agreement. The non-oil bilateral trade between the countries amounted to US$120 million annually. Bangladesh also looks for Iranian assistance in the construction of new oil refineries. Iran also served as a critical partner in developing Bangladeshi oilfields discovered in the north-eastern district of Sylhet.
Tehran has promised to discuss rebuilding and increasing the capacity of Bangladesh’s sole oil refinery, Eastern Refinery, which was originally built with assistance from Iran in 1963 when Bangladesh was East Pakistan. Iran has also offered to upgrade the refinery to increase its capacity.
Iran provided a loan to Bangladesh to construct Ashuganj Fertiliser and Chemical Company Ltd, but faced problems in continuing payments after the UN sanctions were imposed on Iran in 2006.
There is a huge scope of bilateral trade between the two countries. Iran could buy jute, ready made garments, leather goods, tea and agricultural products from Bangladesh and at the same time Iran could export oil, natural gas, petrochemicals, plastics and ceramics.
Though Shias are merely two percent of Bangladesh’s total population, and Iran exerts huge influence on them like it does on the larger Shia populations in India and Pakistan, Bangladesh has largely been free from sectarian violence since its formation as an independent state some five decades back. There were just a few reports of some sporadic violence against Shias in Bangladesh in 2015. Bangladeshi Shias also protested the killing of Iranian Quds force commander Qassem Soleimani by a US air strike in Baghdad.
Iranian chief negotiator and foreign minister Javad Zarif visited Dhaka after signing the Iran nuclear deal in 2015 to discuss comprehensive relations with Bangladesh. Iran was eager to develop multidimensional relations with Bangladesh and presented itself as a reliable partner to satisfy Bangladesh’s growing energy needs. As a sign of deepening ties between the two states, Bangladesh has also supported Iran’s civilian nuclear program. After the expiry of the UN arms embargo on Iran in October last year and the coming of Joe Biden administration in the White House chances of JCPOA revival appear to be on the horizon and lifting of unilateral US sanctions on Iran may be in the offing. Iran’s return to the international system will pave the way for further strengthening in Iran-Bangladesh ties.
A country with a population of 165 million and fastest growing economy in South Asia, Bangladesh has huge potentials both in the energy and other industrial and service sectors. It is pertinent to say that Bangladesh has now surpassed Pakistan in both Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and in per capita income. With a growing economy and continuing industrialization Bangladesh will need more energy and a sanction-free Iran will be an important source for Bangladesh’s energy needs.
Bangladesh is also a gateway for Iran’s access to the Indian Ocean. As reported in Iranian media in November 2017, the Iranian Navy’s 49th flotilla of warships berthed at Bangladesh’s port city of Chittagong after taking part in one of world’s largest maritime exercises International Maritime Search and Rescue Exercise (IMMSAREX) arranged by Bangladesh in its waters, in the Bay of Bengal. The naval exercise was attended by military vessels from 32 countries including India, China and Pakistan.
Iran’s increased cooperation with Bangladesh is a sign of Bangladesh’s growing regional profile. It is also a sign of growing cooperation through economic organizations such as the D-8, where Iran, Turkey and Bangladesh are all members. Apart from the D-8, Iran and Bangladesh are also members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Not only do such organizations provide a common platform for possible economic and cultural cooperation between the two countries, but they also help foster more South-South cooperation amidst a weakening global North and a rising China.
Author: Mohammed Pervez Bilgrami (The writer is a political analyst, who follows geopolitical and security trends in the greater Middle East with a particular focus on Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Egypt and the GCC. He has written for various platforms and his work has also been translated into French, Spanish, Arabic, Turkish, Albanian, Thai and Bahasa Indonesia).
(The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of World Geostrategic Insights)