After the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s downfall, news reports have since suggested that a foreign hand is at play behind her ouster. These reports are linked to an undelivered speech that has been attributed to Hasina, perhaps incorrectly. As Hasina was forced to flee her country on 5 August, the purported speech’s salience has subsequently grown. It depicts the former PM apparently admitting that she could have remained in power had she accepted the United States’s (US) demands for handing over control of Bangladesh’s St. Martin’s Island to have “sway over the Bay of Bengal”. Although any attribution of this speech to Sheikh Hasina has been denied by her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, she had referred to the island in a previous similar insinuation.
It depicts the former PM apparently admitting that she could have remained in power had she accepted the United States’s (US) demands for handing over control of Bangladesh’s St. Martin’s Island to have “sway over the Bay of Bengal”.
In May 2024, Hasina claimed that a “white man offered her a hassle-free re-election in the 7 January elections provided she allowed a foreign country to establish an air base in Bangladesh territory.” She further stated, “There is no controversy here, no conflict. I won’t let that happen. This is also one of my crimes.” The obvious reference was America’s interest in St. Martin’s Island, because of a 2023 rumour, that Washington DC demanded the island in exchange for supporting the Awami League government. While such speculations had been denied by the spokesperson of the US Department of State, Matthew Miller, the country’s overt push for a “free and fair election” in Bangladesh this year, disconcerting the Hasina regime, has reignited suspicions. Although American interests remain a subject of debate despite US denials, the geostrategic significance of St. Martin’s Island is undeniable for various regional and extra-regional actors in the Bay of Bengal.
