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  • Bangladesh Election: BNP Victorious
  • Munich Security Conference: Rubio Sends A Mixed Message

By Shashi P.B.B. Malla

Bangladesh

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party has come out victorious in the country’s first election since the 2024 uprising, positioning itself to form the next government (AP/Associated Press, Feb. 13).

The BNP could potentially reshape Bangladesh’s political landscape after years of intense rivalry and disputed polls.

Nepal’s uprising was also inspired by the Gen Z awakening, but unlike in Bangladesh the political system was different.

Bangladesh was ruled ruthlessly for years by Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League, whereas Nepal was ruled by a coterie of so-called political leaders who were perhaps not so ruthless but nevertheless extremely autocratic and self-serving.

In Bangladesh, it was one woman’s rule, whereas in Nepal, the political parties used the revolving door principle and the game of musical chairs.

In both cases, the people were suppressed, and the periodical elections did not bring about real change.

The BNP’s media unit said on ‘X’ it had secured enough seats in Parliament to govern on its own, though the rival group Jamaat-e-Islami raised concerns over delayed results.

The final tally has not yet been announced by the Election Commission, but several local media outlets reported the BNP crossing the 151-seat threshold needed for a majority in the 350-member parliament, which includes 50-reserved seats for women that are proportionally distributed among the winning parties (AP).

The BNP is headed by the 60-year-old Tarique Rahman, its prime ministerial candidate who returned to the country in December after 17 years of self-exile in London.

He is the son of former prime minister Khaleda Zia, who died last December, and former president Gen. Rahman, one of the founders of SAARC.

Saleh Shibly, press secretary to Rahman, said the BNP leader called on his supporters to hold special prayers along the weekly Friday service and not to hold any celebratory rallies and processions.

US & Regional Powers Congratulate BNP’s Rahman

The US Embassy in Dhaka congratulated Rahman and his party on the win, calling it a historic victory.

“The United States looks forward to working with you to achieve shared goals of prosperity and security for both our countries,” US Ambassador to Bangladesh Brent T. Christensen wrote on ‘X’.

India & Pakistan

Leaders from India and Pakistan also lauded the BNP leader.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi noted the win ‘reflects the confidence of the Bangladeshi people in your leadership.’

He added that he looks forward to collaborating with him to deepen bilateral ties.

Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari said his country ‘remains committed to a strong democratic partnership and advancing shared progress.’

Historically, Bangladesh has enjoyed mixed relationships with the two regional powers, India and Pakistan.

India under Indira Gandhi helped Bangladesh gain independence from its arch-rival Pakistan through a bloody war in 1971.

India had warm and close relations with Bangladesh under previous prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted following the 2024 protests and fled to exile in India, where she was granted political asylum.

During Hasina’s brutal rule, India ignored the atrocities committed by her regime and her exile in India will remain a bone of contention in the bilateral relationship. This will also be the main hurdle to reset bilateral elections.

This is similar to the case of the Dalai Lama’s exile in Dharamshala, India which has poisoned Sino-Indian relations since he fled Tibet in 1959.

Pakistan remained sidelined under Hasina, but that has been reversed under the interim administration led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus.

Nepal’s PM congratulates Rahman

Nepal’s interim prime minister Sushila Karki has also congratulated the people and the government of Bangladesh on the successful conduct of the 13th parliamentary elections.

In her post on ‘X’, she extended her congratulations to Tarique Rahman on leading the Bangladesh Nationalist Party to a remarkable victory in the elections.

“I look forward to working closely with you to strengthen our neighbourly ties and consolidate cooperation in areas of mutual interest,” she added (The Rising Nepal, Feb.14).

The last wording was rather presumptive as Ms. Karki will not be at the helm of affairs soon after Nepal’s own election.

However, the spirit of cooperation was right on track and Nepal could do much more to strengthen bilateral and also trilateral – with Sri Lanka – relations in the South Asian region.

Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami Party makes inroads

The election contest was largely a two-way race between the BNP and the 11-party alliance led by the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami, a conservative religious party whose growing influence has fuelled concern, particularly among women and minority communities, including Hindus.

Despite falling short of a majority, the alliance made a notable impact, securing at least 77 seats, according to local TV channels.

Shafiqur Rahman, who heads Jamaat-e-Islami, secured a seat in Dhaka and is poised to become the opposition leader in parliament.

But his party voiced objections to the handling of the election results, but not whether the elections were free and fair.

Munich

At the Munich Security Conference, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio sought to reassure a nervous Europe last Saturday that Washington wanted to recharge the transatlantic alliance so that a strong Europe could help the US on its mission of ‘global renewal’.

This was in stark contrast to months of turmoil in US-European relations sparked by US President Donald Trump’s intentions to seize Greenland and his often derisive remarks about US European allies.

Washington’s top diplomat did strike a remarkable soothing tone.

However, the Europeans shouldn’t celebrate too soon, because his mercurial boss Trump will go on the attack soon and again. The world’ bully will not be tamed. He is causing havoc all over the world, not least by his climate policies.

“We do not seek to separate, but to revitalize an old friendship and renew the greatest civilization in human history,” Rubio said, calling for “a reinvigorated alliance” (Agence France Presse/AFP, Feb. 14).

His bombastic words cannot escape the fact that “the greatest civilization in human history” is tolerating mass murder, ethnic cleansing even genocide in Gaza, the Occupied West Bank, Sudan and South Sudan.

“We want Europe to be strong,” Rubio said, adding that the continent and the US “belong together” (AFP).

At the same time, he echoed the Trump administration’s oft-stated assertion that immigration posed a threat, saying that “mass migration” was “a crisis which is transforming and destabilizing societies all across the West” (AFP).

Unfortunately, he is right, but for the wrong reasons!

Mass migration from the poor countries of Latin America, Africa and Asia have been exacerbated because of the very policies, or lack thereof, of the US and Europe.

Change of Tone

Aside from immigration, Rubio otherwise largely avoided the MAGA flashpoint and culture war issues that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Friday, had deepened a ‘rift’ between the US and Europe.

Rubio’s speech marked a sharp contrast to that of US Vice President J.D. Vance a year ago, when he used the same venue to attack European policies on a range of issues including free speech and immigration, shocking European allies.

US-European ties were further strained by the new US National Security Strategy, which launched an unprecedented attack against Europeans, charging that the continent was threatened with ‘civilizational decline’ and by the Trump administration’s courting of far-right European political parties.

Only last month, ties plunged when Trump stepped up threats to annex Greenland, an  Denmark, forcing European nations to stand firm in protest.

Again in contradiction to his very words, Rubio travelled on Sunday further to Slovakia and Hungary, European countries run by far-right nationalist leaders very much against the European project but strongly endorsed by Trump himself.

Mixed Reactions

Some breathed a sigh of relief following Rubio’s speech, with Estonia’s Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur telling AFP “it was needed to show that we are still allies and partners.”

This is far too optimistic, considering that under Trump it is not at all clear that in the case of an attack by Russia on say the Baltic states, the collective security clause of NATO – ‘an attack on one, is an attack on all’ – would actually be activated by him.

Thus others said they did not mark a shift in the US stance, with former Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis saying “it was simply delivered in more polite terms. I am not sure the white paint will hold” (AP).

Europe’s Security

European leaders at the Munich Security Conference have again pledged to shoulder more of the burden of shared NATO defences, saying this was essential for Europe to counter a hostile Russia.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told the meeting on Saturday that “Europe needs to step up and has to take on its responsibility” for its security, including closer ties with Britain 10 years after Brexit (after the UK left the EU).

British leader Keir Stammer (under severe attack at home because of the UK’s involvement with sex-predator Eppstein) echoed the sentiment, saying “We must build our hard power, because this is the currency of the age,” calling for the building of “a shared industrial base across Europe which can turbocharge our defence production” (AFP).

Ukraine War

NATO’s effectiveness and Europe’s resolve is being tested by Vladimir Putin’s ‘special military operation in Ukraine.

Europe has done little or nothing to counter Trump’s blatant favouritism vis-à-vis Putin and Russia.

He is demanding concessions from Ukraine and none from Russia.

Putin is, therefore, not interested in a peace agreement, in spite of severe wartime losses and great hardship for his own people.

The high-powered Munich meeting of government leaders, diplomats, defence and intelligence chiefs comes shortly before Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine is set to enter its fifth gruelling year.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rightly decried that political efforts to end the war have not worked.

“Weapons evolve faster than political decisions meant to stop them,” he said, calling for speedier arms deliveries for Ukraine’s Western-supplied air defence systems.

“No one in Ukraine believes [Russian President Vladimir Putin] will ever let our people go, but he will not let other European nations go either, because he cannot let go of the very idea of war,” Zelensky said (AFP).

Rubio himself conceded on Saturday that “We don’t know if the Russians are serious about ending the war.”

At the White House last Friday, Trump was at his usual tactics of goading Zelensky. He urged Kyiv to again “get moving” to end the war. Instead he praised Putin: “Russia wants to make a deal [but only in its favour] .  .  . [Zelensky] has to move,” the US leader of the so-called ‘free world’ said.

Unfortunately, Rubio renewed the Trump administration’s unwarranted criticism of the United Nations, saying that “it has no answers and it has played virtually no role” on the most pressing conflicts llike the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Rubio conveniently forgot to mention that whereas the United States has not even paid its dues for the second year running, withdrawn from several UN agencies and stopped development aid, the UN has still been very active in humanitarian aid in several conflict-ridden areas.

Moreover, the United States and Russia have stymied the UN Security Council, the main organ responsible for international peace and security, by misusing their veto power.

The writer can be reached at: shashimalla125@gmail.com

By: Shashi P.B.B. Malla