Foreign minister discusses Rohingya issues, vaccine co-op with India, China

Foreign minister AK Abdul Momen on Thursday held separate bilateral meetings with his Indian and Chinese counterparts, on the sidelines of a connectivity conference in Uzbekistan, highlighting necessity of early repatriation of Rohingya as well as Covid vaccine cooperation, reports BSS.

The foreign minister is leading a delegation comprised of Bangladesh ambassador to Uzbekistan and senior officials from Dhaka to the International Conference on “Central and South Asia: Regional connectivity: Challenges and opportunities” being held in Uzbek’s capital Tashkent.

Apart from meeting with his Indian and Chinese counterpart, Momen also held a bilateral meeting with Tajikistan foreign minister on the sidelines of the conference, a foreign ministry press release said.

Momen and Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar discussed a range of issues including the bilateral and regional connectivity, Covid and vaccination situation in both the countries and the issue of repatriation of forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals Rohingyas from Bangladesh to their land of origin in Rakhine.

The Indian foreign minister expressed his happiness as the supply of vaccine to Bangladesh is back in track again from diversified external sources including under COVAX arrangement.

Both the sides reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthening the partnership and expanding multifaceted cooperation.

They also emphasised the need for resuming the activities of various joint mechanisms soon after the Covid scenario improves in both countries.

After meeting with Jaishankar, Momen held the bilateral meet with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi where he reiterated his request to initiate vaccine coproduction in Bangladesh with partnership between Bangladeshi and Chinese stakeholders.

He thanked the Chinese government for initiating the six-party Covid consultation and expressed Bangladesh’s gratitude to the Chinese government for standing by the people of Bangladesh at an extremely difficult time by generosity sending vaccine doses as gifts and also opening the commercial supply line.

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi assured Momen of the Chinese government’s support on vaccine coproduction in Bangladesh.

Both the foreign ministers agreed to continue to work further towards the repatriation of the Rohingyas while they put emphasis on resuming the tripartite dialogue among Bangladesh, China and Myanmar in this regard.

Both sides reciprocated their appreciation to each other for exchanging video messages by prime minister Hasina and president Xi Jinping on the occasions of the joint programme of the 100th anniversary of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Golden Jubilee of Bangladesh’s independence and the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China respectively.

During his meeting with Tajikistan foreign minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin, Momen proposed to initiate a joint working commission to boost bilateral trade and investment.

Muhriddin expressed his country’s appreciation to Bangladesh for graciously hosting the persecuted Rohingyas and pledged to continue to support Bangladesh in its multidimensional efforts to repatriate the displaced Rohingyas.

Momen will return home on 19 July.