Dhaka bars Russian ship under US ban from entering its port

Russian cargo ship Surgut in the port of Bruges. RepresentationL image. Wikimedia Commons

Bangladesh authorities have recently barred a Russian vessel under United States sanction from entering its water territory.

‘We were initially not aware that the ship was under US sanction. We have taken steps as we have come to know about the sanction,’ state minister for shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury told reporters at his office on Thursday.

The vessel, carrying a consignment of products for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, was scheduled to reach Mongla Port with cargo for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant on December 24, said officials.

They said that the authorities, being alerted by the US authorities on December 20, barred the ship from entering Bangladesh territory

Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant Project is being implemented by the state-run Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission under the science and technology ministry, with financial, technical and technological support given by Russia through its state-run nuclear agency, Rosatom.

Science and technology minister Yeafesh Osman said that the ship sent with the consignment by mistake and they would replace it by another ship to carry the consignment to the Bangladesh port.

The news of barring the Russian vessel under US sanction came when Russian and the US were involved in debate regarding internal affairs of Bangladesh.

In a statement on December 20, the Russian embassy in Dhaka said that the country was ‘invariably committed’ to its principled stance on non-interference in the domestic affairs of third countries following an incident on December 14 in which the US ambassador in Dhaka Peter Haas had to quickly conclude a meeting with Mayer Dak, a platform of families of the enforced disappearance victims, at Shahinbagh in Dhaka on account of security concerns.

Sharing a news report on the Russian statement by a local daily, the US embassy in Dhaka asked on its official Twitter account whether the non-interference policy applied to Ukraine.

‘Does it apply to Ukraine?’ the US embassy wrote tagging a slogan ‘Stand with Ukraine’.

The Russian embassy in Dhaka posted a cartoon on its official Twitter account on December 22, criticising the Western policy against Russia on Ukraine as the country appeared to have locked in a debate with the United States over political developments in Bangladesh.

Russia later said that the December 14 incident was an ‘expected result’ of activities of the American ambassador, who — on the pretext of caring for the rights of the citizens of Bangladesh — was ‘persistently trying to influence’ the domestic processes in the country.