Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Sunday said Bangladesh will not accept those Russian ships which are under sanctions, noting that Bangladesh has developed a good relationship with the United States of America (USA).
“It is surprising that Russia knowingly sent a sanctioned ship by changing its name. We did not expect it. Now, we expect that Russia will send things by non-sanctioned ships,” he told reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Momen said Russia has hundreds of ships and there are 69 Russian ships which are under sanctions.
Bangladesh has conveyed to the Russian side that they can send any ship except those sanctioned 69 ships carrying equipment for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant.
Momen hoped that Russia would now send non-sanctioned ships carrying required materials.
Sanctioned Russian ship Sparta III (Ursa Major) was scheduled to dock at Mongla port in the southwestern part of the country at the end of December last year and unload cargo destined for the Rooppur NPP in Pabna.
But the authorities denied the ship permission to dock at the port after officials got a letter from the US Embassy in Dhaka saying that the ship was on a list of Russian ships sanctioned by the US.
The vessel is en route to the port of Shanghai, China, sailing at a speed of 10.4 knots and expected to arrive there on January 31, according to vesselfinder.com which provides real-time vessel data.
Source: United News of Bangladesh