Russia Bangladesh relations over the years remain sustainable through legacy of support to Liberation in 1971 and strategic projects as the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant.
The relations were impacted due to recent sanctions on Russia by the United States and Bangladesh took a decision to block the docking of Russian ships to anchor at its ports as they came under western sanctions against Moscow due to ongoing Ukraine war. These ships were carrying items for the Rooppur Nuclear Plant.
Russia summoned Bangladesh's ambassador to Moscow to protest Dhaka's decision.
Bangladesh informed Moscow that they could send any ship, except the sanctioned ones, to Bangladesh’s ports. Thus there was some discord in the engagement.
Disruptions in supply chains and financial transactions caused by the sanctions imposed amid the Russia-Ukraine war have affected the progress of the Rooppur project. Bangladesh banned 69 US-sanctioned Russian ships from entering its territory.
A sanctioned ship that brought equipment for the power plant in recent months was not allowed to anchor in Bangladesh.
However, Bangladesh, along with India were among the 32 nations that abstained as the 193-member General Assembly adopted the resolution "Principles of the Charter of the United Nations" underlying a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine, put forward by Ukraine and its supporters.
This has cleared the misunderstanding and Daily Star reports that Russia wants to continue its cooperation with Bangladesh, particularly in trade, economy, and implementation of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant
Russian Ambassador to Bangladesh, Alexander Mantytskiy, said this in a meeting with Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury.
Rooppur Nuclear Plant
As per the IAEA Website, Bangladesh is constructing first nuclear power plant (NPP), and the IAEA, in line with its mandate, is supporting authorities in the South Asian country in the safe, secure and sustainable introduction of nuclear power.
Nuclear power is expected to provide 9% of its electricity after the commissioning of the plant in 2023 — six years after the first safety-related concrete was poured as per the IAEA Website,
Once completed, the two reactors at the Rooppur site, some 160 kilometres north-west of the capital, Dhaka, will generate 2400 megawatts of round-the-clock clean electricity. But the introduction of nuclear power in Bangladesh is about more than just energy as per the IAEA Website,
The Rooppur project is the core of an ambitious initiative to transform a developing country into a developed economy by 2041, in part by scaling up electricity production, with some 2.7 million homes set to be connected to the grid over the next year alone as per the IAEA Website,