Diplomatic tensions in Dhaka after American & Russian embassies engage in a “Twitter war” over next elections in Bangladesh

Diplomatic tensions have been reported in Dhaka after the American & Russian embassies in Bangladesh engage in a “Twitter war” over the next elections in Bangladesh!

Trouble is said to have started when the US ambassador in Dhaka visited the house of Muhammad Sajid – an opposition BNP party leader who has been missing for the last 10 years, and the opposition alliance accuses PM Hasina Wajid of his abduction.

The US ambassador was ambushed by workers of the ruling Awami League party while being there and had to be evacuated by security forces and the US state department lodged a protest to Bangladesh over this situation.

The US also asked Bangladesh to ensure that the next general elections are free and fair, and shouldn’t be “rigged” like previous elections.

The development led the Russian embassy in Bangladesh to tweet a meme, accusing the US of interference in other countries.

Later on Thursday, Russia opened a diplomatic front on the incident and said interference in the domestic affairs of countries had increased after the end of the Cold War. The statement from the Embassy of Russia in Dhaka came as a senior diplomatic source reminded the importance of following the Vienna Convention and avoiding interference in the internal affairs of host countries. 

“According to the U.N. Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention in the Domestic Affairs of States and the Protection of Their Independence and Sovereignty dated 1965, ‘no State has the right to intervene, directly or indirectly, for any reason whatever, in the internal or external affairs of any other State’”, said the Russian Embassy’s Statement on Interference in Domestic Affairs.

It should be noted that Russia is building the first nuclear reactor in Bangladesh in Rooppur and has maintained silence about the political process in Bangladesh

Since then, both embassies have tweeted against each other, hence escalating diplomatic tension in Dhaka.