The purpose of this positioning paper is to explore the geopolitical potentials and challenges of Bangladesh in the South Asia context. Employing a traditional comparative advantages and connectivity framework, this paper assesses how Bangladesh can play a geopolitically significant role in South Asia. This paper also discusses the geopolitical challenges that Bangladesh has faced and have possibilities to encounter. The paper argues that, despite its small geographic area, Bangladesh is becoming more influential and well-known globally as its economy expands and the balance of power shifts eastward. Bangladesh’s topography plays a crucial role in world politics, as its position creates a natural bridge between South and Southeast Asia, advances regional integration, and enables all nearby regions to prosper. In addition, thanks to Bangladesh’s geostrategic advantages, China is pursuing a soft balancing strategy, while India has already taken steps to deepen its relationship with Bangladesh. Furthermore, the paper contends that competition for connectivity development projects is a new kind of geopolitics in which political space has been significantly redefined, rather than just for connectedness and economic development. Such connectivity development efforts benefit Bangladesh’s position even though they create uncertainty in relationships with other countries. The study concludes that, despite potential challenges, Bangladesh has a strong dominant position in geopolitics, not only because of its population, economy, and geopolitical circumstances, but also due to connectivity development projects in this South Asian region.

Keywords: Bangladesh Geopolitics, connectivity, Geography, Bay of Bengal, neighboring relations