New Delhi: A stretch of land spread across merely 3 square kilometres, the St Martin’s Island in the north-eastern part of the Bay of Bengal has taken centre stage with the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led government in Bangladesh.
Reports have emerged about a speech Hasina was to give — claiming that she could have remained in power had she given away St Martin’s to the US — before she fled the country.
While the latest reports have been denied by her son, she has, in the past, made similar claims.
It is claimed that the US wants to build an air base in the small island, which is situated just 8 kilometres away from Myanmar, even though it falls under Bangladeshi territory.
The rumours of US wanting control over the island has been doing the rounds for several years now with Washington even officially denying such plans.
Way back in 2003, the then US envoy to Bangladesh, Mary Ann Peters, had said that her country “has no plans, no requirement, and no desire for a military base on St. Martin’s Island, Chittagong, or anywhere else in Bangladesh”.
“All the United States is interested in is strengthening of military ties with Dhaka,” she had added.
However, ahead of the elections in Bangladesh in January this year, Hasina had claimed that “a white man” had offered her a smooth return to power in exchange for an airbase.
Last year, while addressing a press conference in Bangladesh, Hasina had said “I don’t want to return to power by leasing out St Martin’s Island”.
Accusing her main opposition party, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of colluding with those seeking to seize St Martin’s as part of their plan to oust her from power, she had said, “The BNP came to power in 2001 by giving undertakings to sell gas. Now they want to sell the country. They want to come to power through an undertaking to sell St Martin’s.”
The US Department of State had then said that no talks had ever been held over the island.
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What the US would gain from St Martin’s
Sources in the Indian security establishment denied any first-hand knowledge of the US wanting the island and said that they were going by what Hasina has repeatedly said and the buzz around it for years.
The sources explained that the biggest advantage for anyone with a military base at St. Martin’s, despite its small size, would be the strategic presence it would have over the Strait of Malacca, which the Chinese use majorly for their transportation.
Sources also explained that the island would also prove to be a prick point to the Cox Bazaar port in Bangladesh that the Chinese are building. The island can be turned into a good listening post for surveillance activities, focussed not just on China’s and Myanmar’s activities, but also India’s.
Myanmar claims island as its own
While Hasina has claimed that the US wants the island, Myanmar asserts its rights over the island.
The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) recognised St Martin’s Island as part of Bangladesh, but Myanmar still sees it as its own territory.
In 2018, Myanmar had included Saint Martin’s Island on its official map, following which the Bangladesh government had reacted strongly. The map was eventually deleted with then Myanmar foreign minister claiming that it was a mistake.
While the then government had removed it, it has since been ousted by the military junta and ships travelling to the island have been fired upon this year.
This forced the Bangladeshi Navy to deploy its own vessels near the island.
This is an updated version of the report.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)