The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is an economic and political organization of eight countries in South Asia. It was established in 1985 when the Heads of State of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka formally adopted the charter.
Published in Chapter:
Strategic Partnership of Bangladesh With Australia to Protect From Possible Debt Trap and Diseconomies of Scale of One-Belt One-Road: Lessons for SAARC Nations
S. Jobayear Ahmed (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), Bangladesh)
Copyright: © 2022
|Pages: 33
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-8657-0.ch008
Abstract
Bangladesh is a developing nation that is about to complete its Golden Jubilee partnership by 2022 with Australia, a country that has been supporting Bangladesh through aid, assistance, grant, loan, trade, scholarship, etc. Recently, the regional and global superpower China has increased its influence in the Indian Ocean region both through its military and through the OBOR or BRI where it has also shown interest to work with Bangladesh in both fronts. Bangladesh is a very small country but strategically very important, with access to the Indian Ocean. Therefore, it is important to check whether the OBOR initiatives put any negative impact on the neighboring SAARC nations and partner states. The study therefore attempted to identify the potential diseconomies of scale and the solutions Australia-Bangladesh relations might offer.