[🇧🇩-Navy] BNS Sheikh Hasina

Saif said:

Why Bangladesh’s China-Funded Pekua Submarine Base Will Prove To Be A Migraine For India

Damien Symon, who goes by the ID ‘detrestfa’ on the social media platform X, last month released a satellite image of a dry dock developed at the China-built base in Bangladesh.

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Why Bangladesh's China-Funded Pekua Submarine Base Will Prove To Be A Migraine For India
By: Ranjit Kumar | Updated at : 21 Apr 2024 07:33 PM (IST)

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One of the Ming-class submarines bought by Bangladesh from China. ( Image Source : X/@theBDnavy )

With Sri Lanka denying Chinese spy ships permission to dock at its naval port, India might have got a temporary reprieve. But another of India's land and maritime neighbours, Bangladesh, is going to be a bigger concern for New Delhi. The latest satellite imagery – showing a dry dock on a submarine base being built by China at Pekua in Cox's Bazar – has drawn the attention of the strategic community, not only in India but all over the Indo-Pacific. Even so, a poll bound India seems to have no time to browse over this issue with long-term security implications.

China, in the near future, is likely to find a second home for its submarines in the Bay of Bengal, facing some of India's strategically important naval bases, including a nuclear submarine base.

Damien Symon, who goes by the ID 'detrestfa' on the social media platform X, last month released a satellite image of the dry dock (used for maintenance of watercraft).

"This enhanced defence cooperation endeavour by China helps Beijing solidify its presence and influence in the region," Symon wrote in his post

That China has emerged as a major defence supplier to Bangladesh, its second biggest defence export destination after Pakistan, is well known, and the Indian strategic community is helplessly watching the evolution.

Recent developments at the Pekua submarine base, which was inaugurated by Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina in December 2023, should draw the attention of strategic planners, who must find a way to deny China the use of this facility, or counter the enhanced presence of Chinese military and its assets on Bangladesh's naval bases.

The weapons and submarines supplied to Bangladesh do not pose any direct security challenge to India as such, but it should concern New Delhi since it will tighten the dragon's grip over the country and consequently impact its Indo-Pacific strategy.

China has strengthened its hold over Bangladesh through the 2002 Defence Cooperation Agreement, which covers military training and defence supplies. This cooperation has significantly been expanded in the naval domain.

In fact, the deepening naval cooperation between Bangladesh and China is likely to emerge as not a headache, but a migraine for Indian strategic planners.

With Sri Lanka, India could exercise its economic and strategic leverage, but Bangladesh would prove to be a hard nut to crack.

Surprisingly, this has happened during the tenure of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is known to be very close to India and who has overseen promising strides in Indo-Bangladesh diplomatic and economic relations.

This, even as her focus on improving ties with India has attracted domestic criticism – her re-election for the fourth consecutive term this January sparked an 'India-out' campaign by Hasina's critics who suspect India of electoral interference.

The campaign has not got much traction in Bangladesh politics, but shows the presence of an anti-India sentiment among some sections in the country.

The way Sheikh Hasina is pushing close defence relations with China is giving the dragon excuses to make deep inroads in the strategic domain of Bangladesh.

The issue of the long-term unhindered presence of Chinese submarines and their operators at the newly built submarine base at Pekua might cloud India-Bangladesh relations. China, meanwhile, would be only too happy to drive a wedge in India-Bangladesh relations, capitalising on segments that are anti-India diehards.


An Eager Defence Partner

Bangladesh harbours the ambition of becoming a regional maritime power, and the fast developing Bay of Bengal economy has found an eager defence partner in China.

After supplying two old refurbished submarines to Bangladesh at a concessional friendly price, China came forward to build the grand submarine base, which was inaugurated last year in March by PM Sheikh Hasina in the presence of a large number of Chinese officials.

The naval base, spread over 1.75 square km and named BNS Sheikh Hasina, would not simply be a submarine docking port, but also a maintenance and overhaul facility, as revealed by the new satellite imagery, which raises questions about the real intent of China.

China has funded and developed the $1.21 billion Pekua submarine base, and Bangladesh is destined to be dependent on China for its maintenance for years to come. It will be difficult for Bangladesh to wriggle itself out of the dragon's jaws, and the Indian Navy will have to live with the fait accompli – submarines operated by the PLA Navy finding an opportunity to be dangerously in the vicinity of India's Andaman and Nicobar command.

Bangladesh is likely to ignore any Indian objections to permitting the visits of Chinese submarines. Since the base and dry dock have been built and are being maintained by China, the Chinese navy would naturally claim logistical and strategic access to the base. The submarine base can easily be used as another espionage outpost by the Chinese navy. This will make Bay of Bengal unsafe for India as the Chinese navy can easily monitor the movement of Indian submarines and warships in the region and Indian naval ships stationed at Indian bases. The Chinese navy can use this facility under the garb of anti-piracy operations.

Bangladesh will thus be embroiled in the Great Game of the Indo-Pacific, where the Bangladesh navy will find itself playing the role of a reserve player from the Chinese side.

An Unwelcome Development

In November 2016, Bangladesh took the delivery of two Chinese-made retrofitted Ming-class Type O35B diesel electric submarines. The 2.5-decade-old submarines were acquired at a discounted price of $203 million.

The submarines, not considered very useful, were being used by the Chinese navy for training. However, as part of the Bangladesh deal, China upgraded these submarines and equipped them with modern torpedoes and sonars.

The dry dock is estimated to be 135 metres long and 35 metres wide.

The Pekua submarine base, meanwhile, is designed to accommodate six submarines and a few warships, and the Bangladesh navy has only two submarines.

This means either the Bangladesh navy will expand its submarine fleet and China will be a natural claimant to supply four more submarines. If not, China will be encouraged to utilise the space for docking up to four of its submarines.

China may lease them to Bangladesh and deploy its technicians to maintain the submarine fleet and manage training facilities for Bangladesh submariners.

All this will involve inviting the presence of Chinese technicians and submariners to stay on the Bangladesh submarine base for an indefinite period, an unwelcome development for India.

The author is a senior journalist and strategic affairs analyst.​

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Saif said:

Chinese Submarines 'Sneak' Into India's Backyard; Set To Dock Warships Right Under Indian Nose In Bangladesh

Chinese submarines and warships will dock right under India’s nose very soon. In place of supplying submarines to the Bangladesh Navy, China is constructing a port in Cox’s Bazar, which was inaugurated earlier this year. Satellite imagery suggests that China has made significant progress on the...

www.eurasiantimes.com

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Chinese Submarines ‘Sneak’ Into India’s Backyard; Set To Dock Warships Right Under Indian Nose In Bangladesh​

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By Ritu Sharma
December 19, 2023
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Chinese submarines and warships will dock right under India’s nose very soon. In place of supplying submarines to the Bangladesh Navy, China is constructing a port in Cox’s Bazar, which was inaugurated earlier this year.

Satellite imagery suggests that China has made significant progress on the naval base, and the size of the base indicates that PLA-Navy will soon gain “logistical access” to the base.

In other words, the Chinese submarines will call and dock at the Bangladesh port for refurbishment and servicing. The experts are calling it China’s “submarine diplomacy”.

“Gaining a foothold in the Bay of Bengal would significantly level up the PLA’s ability to operate farther from China’s shores and create new challenges for India, as well as the United States and its allies,” a recent analysis of satellite imagery of the under-construction naval base in Bangladesh revealed.

Bangladesh ordered its first two submarines from China in 2013 for the meagre price of just US$203 million as a part of its military modernization under the Forces Goal 2030. The submarines are Type 035G diesel-electric attack submarines, a Ming-class variant first commissioned into the PLA Navy (PLAN) in 1990.

China refitted and upgraded the two vessels before handing them over to Bangladesh in 2016, but their capabilities still lag behind any modern attack submarine. A year after delivering the submarines, the Chinese state-owned defense contractor Poly Technologies secured a US$1.2-billion contract with Bangladesh to build a new submarine support facility on the country’s south-eastern coast.

Christened the BNS Sheikh Hasina Naval Base, after the incumbent Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the base is constructed on a sprawling 1.75 square kilometer. The construction began in 2020, and the base was inaugurated in March 2023 by PM Sheikh Hasina, who called it “ultra-modern.” Several Chinese officials, including at least two senior PLA-N officers, attended the ceremony.

“Satellite imagery from July 2023 shows that construction continues. Despite the ongoing work, Bangladesh has already stationed its Chinese-made submarines there. Once completed, the base will be capable of docking six submarines and eight warships simultaneously,” the report titled “Submarine Diplomacy- A Snapshot of China’s Influence along the Bay of Bengal” read.

The Bay of Bengal lies on top of the sea lanes of communication that connect China, Japan, and Korea with the Middle East and Africa, and through these lanes, half of the world trade passes.

The Bay of Bengal is the largest in the world, nestled between India on the East and Indonesia on the West, while Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar are the coastal countries. The region’s economic, diplomatic, and security importance attracts significant powers in the East and the West (China, Japan, India, the US, and even Russia).

“Military-to-military exchanges also support China’s strategic objectives. Closer defense ties may help the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) secure access to logistics facilities needed to sustain future naval operations in the region.” the report reads.

The US Department of Defense included both Bangladesh and Myanmar on its list of locations where Beijing is likely striving to establish overseas military facilities.

Bangladesh officials have confirmed that the Chinese personnel are also involved in training its submariners on how to operate the submarines and the new base. Prime Minister Hasina has also noted that the facility could be used as “a service point for ships sailing in the Bay of Bengal” — a potential signal that the PLA-N may one day call at the port there.

China, on its part, has kept the details of the project under wraps as it would not like to antagonize India, which has repeatedly raised the increasing military presence of China and set up military infrastructure in its area of dominance.

“Beijing may also be seeking to avoid stoking additional unease among the United States and its allies,” the experts noted. The region is essential for the US policy of a ‘Free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific,’ a euphemism for checking China’s assertiveness.
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China’s Type 94 Jin-class ballistic missile submarine

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China’s ‘Triangle Of Death’​

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“For India, the presence of Chinese-built submarines in the Bay of Bengal, in a way, makes it a very crowded water body as far as underwater activities are concerned. And it also legitimizes the Chinese presence in more ways than one. It complicates the underwater picture for India,” Commodore (retd) Uday C. Bhaskar, Director of the Society for Policy Studies, told the EurAsian Times.

The two submarines in the Bangladesh Navy don’t pose a significant threat to India, the Asian giant that surrounds Bangladesh from three sides and has a substantial strategic interest in the Bay of Bengal. But the two submarines did come with Chinese officials onboard to train and familiarize the Bangladesh crew with the vessels.

Also, the submarine base will need maintenance and operational support from Chinese personnel. Its proximity to India’s Eastern Naval Command, where its indigenous nuclear submarine is under construction, is a cause of concern.

“China has long sought access to the BoB and the Arabian Sea because of its limited and unfavorable maritime geography, particularly along the Western Pacific. The entry into the BoB for China is being facilitated considerably earlier by Myanmar and now by Bangladesh,” Commodore Bhaskar added.

The three Chinese-run South Asian ports – Chittagong in Bangladesh, Hambantota in Sri Lanka, and Gwadar in Pakistan – have formed a “triangle of death” encircling India. They can prove detrimental to New Delhi’s strategy to maintain strategic dominance in its backyard.

An independent political and energy analyst from Sri Lanka, Aruna Kulatunga, told the South China Morning Post that India views Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan as “de facto satellite states of China because they have leased out land to China.”

The Sri Lankan analyst says these countries form a “triangle of death.” “For (India), it is like strangulation,” he said, adding that New Delhi needs to put more resources into protecting vital sea routes.

Ritu Sharma has been a journalist for over a decade, writing on defense, foreign affairs, and nuclear technology.​

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Saif said:

Great find, Bilal bhai.

Since when did Bay of Bengal become India's lake? Bay of Bengal is ours not theirs. If you consider the maritime border of Bangladesh, you will see that almost all of Bay Bengal is our backyard or should I say our lake?

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