Bangladesh urges int’l community to help ensure Rohingya repatriation

NEWS DESK

Foreign Minister A K Abdul Momen today (March 2) called on the international community including the G20 to help ensure repatriation of forcibly displaced Rohingyas to Myanmar without further delay.

“The prolonged stay of Rohingyas is creating huge security problems with ramifications across the region and they may also be a potential target group for radicalization and recruitment by terrorist groups,” he said.

The foreign minister made the remarks while addressing a session at the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting here today under the presidency of India.

India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar chaired the meeting.

Momen, however, said that in addition to help displaced Rohingyas, Bangladesh continues to stand ready to respond to any emergency to save lives and protect people inhumanitarian crises.

In this context, he referred Bangladesh’s support to some neighbouring countries during the trying times of Covid-19.

The today’s sessions began with the recorded video speech of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As many as 40 delegations including nine specially invitee countries including Bangladesh and 13 international organisations attended the meeting began last evening following a gala dinner.

The theme of this year’s meeting is– “One Earth, One Family, One Future”. India got presidency of the world’s major economic grouping last December.

Describing terrorism is one of the gravest challenges, Momen said the challenges is not only to international peace and security but also to human security.

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, he said Bangladesh government maintains a ‘zero-tolerance’ policy towards terrorism in its all forms and manifestations.

“We also do not allow any terrorist outfit to use Bangladesh’s soil against any other countries,” he said adding that due to our government’s pro-active initiatives, India, particularly the Northeast India, is currently enjoying the benefits of continued development, peace and security.

Referring to Russia-Ukraine crisis, he said that the crisis is causing hardship to many, especially to women and children across the nations.

Many governments are finding nightmares to control price spiral and inflation due to disruption of supply chain, and financial transactions mechanism owing to sanctions and counter sanctions, he added.

The minister urges India, as the President of G20, to impress the leaders of G20 to end the crisis and resolve the issues through peaceful means.

Considering the crisis, he said the G20 leadership should make it mandatory for those companies that are making runaway profits owing to the crisis to allocate at least 20 per cent of their profits to the most affected countries.

Addressing a separate session in G20, Momen reiterated Bangladesh’s call for a universal, rule-based, open, transparent, predictable, inclusive, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral system in order to respond to the growing global challenges.

He said the COVID-19 crisis has already proven the importance of multilateral solutions and keeping this living experience in mind, we reiterate our call to this end.

Referring to the global warming, the foreign minister requested the G20 presidency to impress the leadership of the world’s important economic grouping to dedicate at least 10 per cent of their defense expenditures to climate fund to save this planet for the future generations.

He underlined the need for implementation of the 2030 Agenda should remain on top of the agenda of all multilateral initiatives, including the G20.

In this connection, he said, India as a major country of the Global South and as the President of the G20, may urge the G20 leadership to allocate sufficient funds and means of implementation to achieve the SDGs by 2030.

About global peace, Momen said Bangladesh remains at the forefront of promoting development, peace and security through meaningful multilateral cooperation.

The peace-centric foreign policy, spearheaded by our Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, continues to guide us in our engagements with all multilateral fora and initiatives, including the G20, he added.

The minister thanked Indian government for inviting Bangladesh as a Guest Country to G20 saying that this gesture clearly reflects the depth and warmth of the unique bilateral relationship that exists between the two nations.

Foreign ministers of G20 member countries and specially invitees also made remarks at the two separate sessions.