Bangladesh doesn’t prefer war and wants peace with all its neighbours, but needs to defend its maritime borders, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in June as she commissioned the Bangladesh Navy’s latest acquisition. “We need to strengthen our naval force further to defend the sea areas and its resources,” she said while commissioning Chinese-made corvette “BNS Sangram”, via video conference, from her official residence Ganobhaban. She added her hope that this will strengthen the Bangladesh Navy’s capacity to protect the country’s sovereignty.

Bangladesh Navy chief, Admiral Aurangzeb Chowdhury formally handed over the ‘commissioning firman’ of the ship to Captain Arifur Rahman on behalf of the Prime Minister at the Issa Khan Naval Base, Chattogram. BNS Sangram will leave for Lebanon to take part in the UN peacekeeping mission. In her address, Sheikh Hasina also said that after the “Great Liberation War of 1971, Father of the Nation, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman started the newly-independent country’s journey with very limited resources”, and recalled the contribution of India. “The Father of the Nation built the newly-independent country with very limited resources. The army, navy and air force are the symbols of a country’s sovereignty. The Bangladesh Navy started its first voyage with two ships from India,” she said. She said that ‘Bangabandhu’ Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had first taken the initiative of establishing legal rights of Bangladesh to its maritime areas soon after independence, but the governments after 1975 did nothing to this end. After assuming office in 1996 after 21 years, her Awami League government collected necessary data and information regarding the matter and took legal measures after coming to power for second time, Sheikh Hasina said.