Special Envoy to Dhaka

A commitment for an order for ten Airbus A350s by the national company Biman Bangladesh Airlines, until now an exclusive customer of Boeing, was signed on Monday during Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Bangladesh. The head of state arrived in Dhaka on Sunday evening from the G20 summit in New Delhi. This is the first visit by a French president to the country since François Mitterrand in 1990.

“In a region facing a new imperialism, we want to propose a third way, without any intention of brutalizing our partners or leading them to an unsustainable situation,” declared Emmanuel Macron. The allusion to China, which has strangled partners in the region, particularly Sri Lanka, under unsustainable debt, is clear.

Also read: “Are the French right to be more pessimistic than the inhabitants of Bangladesh?”

The AFD (French Development Agency) has also signed a financing agreement with the government covering $200 million to support the development of 86 municipalities (i.e. a quarter of the total), particularly in the area of ​​waste treatment. , drinking water or rainwater drainage. Over the last three years, AFD has tripled its commitment (more than 1.5 billion euros in very low-rate loans), making Bangladesh the largest recipient of loans from the French Agency over the period.

A letter of intent was also signed between Airbus Defense

Eighth demographic power in the world (170 million inhabitants), Bangladesh is experiencing dynamic economic growth (7% in recent years). Faced with a decline in its foreign exchange reserves and high inflation (12% on food products reports the local press – as in France), the country obtained the green light from the IMF for a loan of 4.7 billion euros. Its dependence on the textile sector and on sending money through the diaspora makes it vulnerable to the international situation. Despite this, its GDP per capita now exceeds that of India, which classifies it, it is insisted in the entourage of the French president, among “emerging countries”.

After Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Sri Lanka at the start of the summer, Emmanuel Macron is thus continuing his “Indo-Pacific offensive”. Bangladesh maintains trade relations with the United States, the largest foreign investor, China, which builds infrastructure, and its big neighbor India. As for Russia, a historic partner since Soviet times, it is in the process of building Bangladesh’s first nuclear power plant, a $13 billion Rosatom project financed 90% by a Russian loan. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also preceded Emmanuel Macron in Dhaka, before going to the G20 summit. He took the opportunity to denounce “the pressure of the United States and its allies on Bangladesh”. The Bangladeshi market for civilian atom therefore seems locked: France has not yet established cooperation, even on research, in this field. On the other hand, Paris is banking on prospects in hydroelectricity, renewable energies and even the agri-food industry.

The French president was received in Dhaka, immersed in a moist seasonal heat, by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. In the streets of the capital, posters bearing the effigy of the two leaders adorn the passage of the official procession. In a country that has been shaken by coups, particularly in the 1980s, Sheikh Hasina is serving his third term. Beaten in 2006, she left power, with respect for democracy, underlines the Elysée, before being re-elected. The opposition and civil society, however, denounce an authoritarian drift of this “iron lady” of Southeast Asia.

To signify the “return of France”, Emmanuel Macron revived the memory of André Malraux’s call, in 1971, to support the Bangladeshi people during the bloody “liberation war” against Pakistan. The French writer and former Minister of Culture under General de Gaulle visited Bangladesh two years later, half a century ago. After visiting Monday morning the house of the father of the Prime Minister, first President of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, assassinated in 1975, Emmanuel Macron offered a photo found by the INA of André Malraux with “the father of the Nation” .

The French president was to end his visit with a meeting with civil society and researchers to discuss in particular the potentially cataclysmic effects of climate change. A rise of one meter in the oceans would submerge a fifth of this country the size of Greece but among the most densely populated in the world.