Japan elects Bangladesh for new OSA to deepen defence ties
Roundtable targets strengthening Japan-Bangladesh partnership
Dhaka: Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Iwama Kiminori on Saturday said Bangladesh was elected one of the four candidate countries of the newly established Official Security Assistance (OSA) to deepen military ties following Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s epoch-making visit to Tokyo in April.
“This shows how much importance Japan attaches to Bangladesh,” he said while speaking at a roundtable on materializing Japan-Bangladesh strategic partnership: diplomatic, economic, and people-to-people relations at the embassy in Dhaka.
The Pan-Asia Research Institute (PARI), a new Japan-based think tank, organized the roundtable with State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam as the chief guest.
Bangladesh and Japan relations witnessed a significant jump in the last decade. In 2014, during the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, it was elevated to a comprehensive partnership level. During Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit this April, the partnership was elevated further to strategic level.
Economic cooperation, cultural cooperation, and peace and stability are the main components of the strategic partnership.
The ambassador said for peace and stability, Japan established the cooperation framework styled OSA for the benefit of armed forces and the regional organizations of like-minded countries.
In addition to that, he said, they had started the negotiations with Bangladesh on an agreement concerning the ‘Transfer of Defence Equipment and Technology’. The discussion is going on in a positive manner, he said.
