'We need to fortify our border'
Some members of Myanmar's Border Guard Police (BGP) taking refuge in Bangladesh, fleeing from Myanmar to save their lives, is more or less a humanitarian issue. But it may create a possibility of more Rohingyas from Myanmar entering Bangladesh. In that case, we need to fortify our border so that such intrusions do not occur.
We must comprehend the new, unfolding scenario and re-strategise the entire issue. We cannot continue in the same fashion we have dealt with it so far.
By re-strategising, I mean taking into account the changed internal circumstances in Myanmar, identifying whom to talk to about issues like Rohingya repatriation or whether we need to talk to multiple players, and understanding how the roles of international actors are changing. We need to redesign our strategies by considering the combination of these two things.
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As the conflict escalates in Myanmar, nothing conclusive can be said at the moment, as the situation is in a very fluid state and changing rapidly.
Among international actors, moves taken by China and India, and partly those of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, need to be observed and studied. China's Belt and Road Initiative and strategic interests intersect with Myanmar, while India has historical ties and economic interests in Myanmar. Understanding and monitoring their moves are crucial for Bangladesh's strategic calculations.
We require greater agility in our diplomatic assessment and manoeuvring because in a conflict situation. Events change on an hourly basis. You need to pick up what's going on very quickly. Dealing with it in our traditional bureaucratic way will not allow us to keep pace.
To stay ahead of a conflict situation, we need a different, agile, and dynamic diplomacy; not the usual one. What I am trying to say is that if we cannot analyse the situation and readjust our positions rapidly, we could be overtaken by events. We have to be ahead of the events. Therefore, we need a quickly adaptive diplomatic approach.
The author Major General (retd) ANM Muniruzzaman is the president of Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS)
