Bangladesh and New Development Bank (NDB): Accession and after, money and more

This article examines Bangladesh's new membership in the BRICS-led New Development Bank (NDB), as the Bangladesh country study for the Special Section on ‘The Evolution of New Development Bank: A Decade Plus in the Making’, in Global Policy journal. In September 2021, Bangladesh became the first country outside of the original BRICS founding members to join NDB. The analysis details how Bangladesh went about joining NDB, especially the geopolitics and diplomacy between Bangladesh and the key NDB founding members (India, China, Russia) which supported Bangladesh's entry; why Bangladesh joined NDB, the main motivations or interests; and how NDB membership is turning out for Bangladesh after acceding to the Bank, what are Bangladesh and the Bank actually doing together, are they realizing the main opportunities as intended, or are outcomes not as intended. Throughout the analysis, we assess how Bangladesh's membership in NDB compares to its multi-decade memberships in the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Islamic Development, and its newer relations with the other new China-supported multilateral bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). This study combines primary data gathered from field research, primary desk research, and cross-verification with the related data, and secondary sources.