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French ambassador to Bangladesh Marie Masdupuy on Wednesday said that Bangladesh’s deal with the Airbus—one for purchase of aircraft for the Biman Bangladesh Airlines and the other for satellite systems—would hopefully be finalised soon as discussions to the effect were going on well.

She said that there would be a significant progress in the deal for purchase of 10 aircraft and earth-observation satellite systems from the Airbus—the European multinational aerospace corporation—during the Bangladesh prime minister’s forthcoming visit to France.

‘Airbus has actually been in discussion in two different files—one is aircraft with Bangladesh’s national flag carrier Biman Bangladesh airlines, and the other is about satellite systems. Discussions are going on quite well and we hope that soon there would be signatures and finalisation of these,’ the French envoy said while briefing a group of journalists at her Gulshan residence to review current issues of interest for France in its bilateral relations with Bangladesh as well as international issues of common interest.

The satellite system relates to the establishment of Bangabandhu-2 Earth Observation Satellite System.

Responding to queries, she, however, said that no date was fixed yet for prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s bilateral visit to France.

About American aerospace company Boeing’s proposal to Biman, she said that they were confident that Biman would choose ‘better option’ for it.

Moreover, Bangladesh would receive a delegation of business people from France probably in the next fall, which she termed as ‘encouraging’.

Asked about the Rohingya issue, she said that they were worried by the current situations in the Cox’s Bazar camps and on the other side of the border.

Underling the need for repatriation of the Rohingyas to their homeland Myanmar, she said that the situation there had to be improved.

Touching upon strategic issues with Bangladesh, she listed aerospace connectivity, defence and digital and cyber issues as the most important ones.

Referring to Russian invasion of Ukraine, the French ambassador said that Bangladesh’s people were targeted by ‘massive information manipulation operations’ against France.Ìý

‘I wanted to alert you to that because you are a very professional and serious media. And it’s your duty to not only debunk all these but to pre-bunk,’ she said.Ìý

Since early May, she said that she had noticed mainly on some YouTube channels, and online media some videos explaining to the Bangladeshi people that France had troops in Ukraine, mentioning the particular name of some regiments, units or battalions.

France was facing information manipulation campaigns over the last years and they saw these campaigns intensifying in the last month, originating from Russia aiming at harming France, she mentioned.

She said that she did not know how these videos went through and managed to be published in these channels in Bangladesh, including some mainstream media outlets.

Criticising the Russian president Vladimir Putin, she said that Putin had no limits and if he would win this war (Ukraine), then tomorrow, he could be invading some other states.Ìý

During French president Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Bangladesh in September, 2023, France and Bangladesh expressed their willingness to step up defence cooperation with ‘a focus on naval, air, and terrestrial capacity.’

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