The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has provided a list of 90 banned large cargo ships to the shipping Ministry so that it can stop the ships from entering the ports in Bangladesh.These vessels are subject to US and UN sanctions. Recently, Bangladesh permitted a Russian-flagged cargo ship in the Bay of Bengal with the products of the Rooppur nuclear project under construction in Bangladesh from Russia in December last year.When the US embassy informed the government of Bangladesh, the latter stopped the ship from entering the port.
The ship was scheduled to anchor at Mongla port on December 23.The Bangladesh government issued the directive after an uproar over the incident.Then the ship, Ursa Major alias Sparta-III, left Bangladesh without unloading the cargo and docked at Haldia port in Kolkata.Russia informed Bangladesh that it had sent the vessel by mistake and would now replace it with another ship to carry the consignment for the Rooppur power plant and deliver it at the Bangladesh port.
At first, Bangladesh gave permission to the cargo ship, as there was no information about the ban.Now the ministry provided the list to avoid this type of untoward situation, said an official at the foreign ministry.The official said: “We have given a list of ships which have been banned by the United Nations and the United States. There are 90 vessels. The authorities have been requested to check with that list while giving approval to ships.”
He said before each ship departs from a port of another country, it is necessary to get approval from Bangladesh for when it can come to any port in Bangladesh, adding that iIt is a global practice. “When our ships go to foreign ports, we also need to take permission,” he said.It is noted that Russia sent a letter in October asking for permission for the ship to arrive at Mongla port on December 23.But in the third week of December, the ship was not allowed to enter when the United States warned Bangladesh of the sanctions.
The US imposed sanctions on several Russian ships in May after the Ukraine war broke out.India has been openly defying US sanctions on Russian ships since the start of the war in Ukraine. All Indian ports are thus open to Russian-flagged vessels, even those with sanctions on them.”We have learned that cargo from the vessel can be unloaded at the Haldia port in India’s West Bengal. From there, another vessel could carry the consignment for the Rooppur power plant and deliver it to a port in Bangladesh,” UNB on January 6 quoted Mongla Port Authority Secretary Kalachand Singh as saying.
