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Foreign policy and military
Foreign Relations of Bangladesh and Military of Bangladesh
Bangladesh pursues a moderate foreign policy that places heavy reliance on
multinational diplomacy, especially at the United Nations. In 1974 Bangladesh
joined both the Commonwealth of Nations and the United Nations and has since
been elected to serve two terms on the Security Council in 1978-1979 and
2000–2001. In the 1980s, Bangladesh played a lead role in founding the South
Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in order to expand relations
with other South Asian states. Since the founding of SAARC 1985, a Bangladeshi
has held the post of Secretary General on two occasions.
Bangladesh's most important and complex foreign relationships are with India and
Pakistan. These relationships are informed by historical and cultural ties and
form an important part of the domestic political discourse.
Bangladesh's relationship with India began on a positive note because of India's
assistance in the independence war and reconstruction. Throughout the years,
relations between both countries have fluctuated for a number of reasons.
Bangladesh claims that India feels too comfortable in playing the role of "Big
Brother" to smaller, weaker nations. India has voiced concerns about Indian
separatists and Islamic terrorists being harbored across their 2,500 mile
border, as well as the flow of illegal migrants, and is building a fence along
most of it. But at the 2007 SAARC meeting both nations pledged to work
cooperatively on security, economic and border issues.
The current strength of the army is around 200,000, the air force 7,000, and
navy 14,950. In addition to traditional defense roles, the military has been
called on to provide support to civil authorities for disaster relief and
internal security during periods of political unrest. Bangladesh is not
currently active in any ongoing war, but it did contribute 2,300 troops to the
coalition that fought in the 1991 Gulf War and Bangladesh is consistently a top
contributor to UN peacekeeping forces around the world. As of May 2007,
Bangladesh had major deployments in Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia,
Sudan, Timor-Leste and Cote d'Ivoire.
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