Dhaka, Feb 22 (PTI) Bangladeshi officials and business leaders on Wednesday said Dhaka could not defy the US or the EU ban on Russian ships or products due to the Ukraine war as it may attract sanctions on the small South Asian country.
“We are not in a position to allow Russian ships to deliver cargo if any of their vessels are under the US or the EU sanction,” a foreign ministry official said, preferring anonymity.
The official’s comments came as he was approached a day after Russia summoned Bangladesh's ambassador to Moscow to protest over Dhaka's decision to block entry of Russian ships under Western sanctions.
Russia's foreign ministry in a subsequent statement said it had told the Bangladesh envoy that the move to ban its ship was not in line with "traditionally friendly bilateral relations and may adversely affect the prospects for cooperation in various fields".
"This step runs counter to the traditionally friendly character of bilateral relations and can have a negative effect on the prospects for our cooperation in various spheres," the Russian foreign office said.
Dhaka, however, is yet to give any official reaction on summoning its envoy to Russia but Mercantile Marine Office in a notice earlier said in line with the foreign ministry advice it banned entry into Bangladeshi ports of 69 Russian vessels which were embargoed by the United States.
“Russia is a friendly country but whatever they say, we can’t afford to allow their particular ships which are under sanctions of the US or the European Union,” Bangladesh Ocean Going Ship Owners Association (BOGSA) chairman Azam J Chowdhury told PTI.
He said the US and the EU countries were the crucial destinations of Bangladeshi products like readymade garments and “our business interests do not allow us to defy their ban”.
“The reality is almost all countries, including our neighbouring India are also acknowledging the ban,” Chowdhury said, adding the denial of ships under Western sanctions did not mean that Bangladesh was severing its trade ties with Russia.
Bangladesh foreign minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has urged Russia not to send cargo through ships sanctioned by the United States, emphasising that Dhaka did want its ties with Washington to be affected.
“We told Russia that they can send us cargo through any of their vessels except 69 ships that are under (US) sanction,” he told reporters weeks after Moscow sent a ship to deliver equipment for Bangladesh’s Rooppur nuclear power plant, which is being built with Russian assistance.
Dhaka refused to accept the vessel due to the US sanctions as the Russian flag carrier — Sparta III — was scheduled to dock at Bangladesh’s southwestern Mongla port on December 24 to unload the cargo as it reached its territorial waters in the Bay of Bengal.
“It is surprising that Russia changed the name of a ship. We didn’t expect it. Now, we expect Russia to send non-sanctioned ships,” Momen said.
Earlier foreign ministry officials said that the denial came after the US Embassy in Dhaka in a letter to Bangladesh authorities described the vessel to be actually URSA MAJOR, which was on their list of sanctioned Russian ships.
According to the US list of 69 sanctioned Russian vessels, URSA MAJOR or Sparta III is an Amphibious/Attack Cargo Ship (AKA) designed to carry equipment, cargo and troops.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and several of her cabinet colleagues, however, in recent months expressed their concern over the economic impact of the US sanctions on countries like Bangladesh and appealed for peace.