Momen urges international community to help ensure Rohingya repatriation

Foreign minister AK Abdul Momen Thursday urged international community including the G20 to help ensure repatriation of forcibly displaced Rohingyas to Myanmar without further delay, reports BSS.

"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 radicalisation and recruitment by terrorist groups," he said.

The foreign minister made the remarks while addressing a session at the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in New Delhi India's external affairs minister S Jaishankar presiding over the meeting.

Momen however said that in addition to helping displaced Rohingyas, Bangladesh continues to stand ready for responding to any emergency to save lives and protect people in humanitarian crises. 

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

Thursday’s sessions began with the recorded video speech of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. As many as 40 delegations including nine specially invited countries including Bangladesh and 13 international organisations attended the meeting.

The theme of this year's meeting is-- "One Earth, One Family, One Future". India became president of the world's major economic group last December. 

Describing terrorism as one of the gravest challenges, Momen said it’s a challenge for not only international peace and security but also for 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 do not allow any terrorist group to use Bangladeshi soil against any other countries either," he said that due to Bangladesh 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 it nightmarish 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 urged India, as the G20 president, to influence 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 making runaway profits because of 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 global warming, the foreign minister requested the G20 presidency to convince the leadership of the world's most important economic group to dedicate at least 10 per cent of their defense expenditures for climate fund to save this planet for the future generations.

He underlined the need for implementation of the 2030 Agenda and that it 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 forums and initiatives, including the G20, he added. 

The minister thanked Indian government for inviting Bangladesh as a guest country, saying that the 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 special invitees made their remarks at those two separate sessions.