Bangladesh announces plans to acquire submarines

Bangladesh is in negotiations to buy submarines from China, a military official told reporters in Dhaka on 24 January.

The official was speaking after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the country would establish a submarine force to boost its presence in the Bay of Bengal.

"We have made a decision to add submarines with base facilities to Bangladesh's navy very soon to make it a deterrent force," Hasina said in the southern city of Khulna at the commissioning of BNS Padma: a 50.4 m patrol craft that is the largest naval vessel to be built in the country. "We will build a modern three-dimensional navy for future generations that will be capable of facing any challenge."

Hasina's announcement follows a 14 March 2012 ruling by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea on the maritime boundary between Bangladesh and Myanmar, which said the border should be based on an equidistant line drawn from base points on the low water lines of the coasts of both countries. The ruling provided "clarity to prospective investors and clarifies Bangladesh's territorial waters, allowing certification of block boundaries", IHS Energy analyst Tom Grieder said at the time.