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Beijing denies meddling as Bangladesh slams envoy’s ‘aggressive’ warning not to join Quad
- Chinese ambassador Li Jiming said Bangladesh joining US-led alliance would cause ‘substantial damage’ to relations with Beijing
- Bangladeshi Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen calls comments regrettable and says Dhaka will decide its own foreign policy
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China has denied interfering in Bangladesh’s foreign policy after Beijing’s envoy in Dhaka was rebuked for warning of “substantial damage” to relations if the South Asian nation were to join the US-led Quad alliance.
“It is definitely not China that intervenes in other countries’ internal affairs in South Asia,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily press conference on Wednesday.
She said any comments about the Quad were not interventions but aimed at opposing political cliques.
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Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen had said that his country had been following a “non-aligned” and “balanced” foreign policy and Beijing should not interfere.
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“We’re an independent and sovereign state,” Momen said in Dhaka, according to the Dhaka Tribune. “We decide our [own] foreign policy.”
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